Colors
by Chaltab
Summary: Trigon wants to take over the world, Starfire's brother has some weird news, and vampires, serial killers, and Divine Spirits of Vengeance are loose in Jump City. Sounds like trouble! And when there's trouble, you know who to call!
1. Prologue: Only New Beginnings

Hey all, and welcome to Colors. This story is the sequel to my other fic, **Legacy of the Tamaranian**, and several important things, most specifically, my Original Character Titan Collin "Ragnarök" Roberts and his ordeal joining the team. I would love it if you read that one first, but I won't make it to confusing if you don't want to.

**_Disclaimer: I don't own the Titans. I do own Ragnarök, however._**

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* * *

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**Prologue: The Legacy of the Tamaranian**

The tale begins not here, not in Jump City, but far away in Idaho. And not in this universe, but in another, very similar in many respects. It had a Teen Titans, a Justice Leage, and many other superheroes. One such hero was called Ragnarok. Collin Roberts, grandson of a dealer in black market goods, had found in said grandfather's basement an artifact, that when activated, gave him an incredibly high-tech armor. This armor allowed him to manipulate the earth itslef, much like Terra of the Titans, though with less power and more precision.

Though with this discovery, Collin feared himself a freak, and fled his home, eventually coming to live with the Teen Titans, where he fought evil with his armor, which turned out to be a Tamaranian artifact that had somehow found its way to Earth many centuries ago.

Unfortunately, Ragnarok was not alone, because in yet another universe, another version of Collin Roberts lurked, broken, twisted by his rage into a psychotic being who called himself Delirium. After fighting through five universes, and slaying the Teen Titans therein, Delirium worked his way to Ragnarok's and there, in a great battle, every Teen Titan except Beast Boy, Starfire, and Ragnarok were slain, until the very end, in which Koriand'r of Tamaran went all out, giving her life so that Ragnarok could destroy his evil counterpart.

But his courage failed, and Ragnarok fled his reality, to the one our Titans call home. Joining them under the pretense of being a rookie, and attempting to prove himself by reviving the fallen Titan, Tara Markov. Unfortunately, even his earth-powers could not save Terra from her self-made tomb. And it mattered little, because an attack from Blackfire ended the get together fast, and Collin threw himself into that battle, which resulted in the Tamaranian's apparent death. But much worse than this tragedy was the news she brought: Tamaran had been laid waste by a massive meteor--a meteor made of pure Zynothium. Because of the battle and Collin's demonstration of skill, however minor, Ragnarok was accepted as a Titan on a trial basis and was taken to Tamaran with the Titans in search of some ancient artifacts, mostly because Robin wanted to keep an eye on him.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Raven and Beast Boy found themselves relying on a newcomer from the future, Impulse, along with Mas and Menos, to protect Jump City in the absencse of the other Titans. This proved a problem when a new villain named Ravager showed up, mind controlling Thunder and Lighting and forcing a confrontation with Raven. As it turned out, Ravager was Slade's none other than Slade's son, Grant Wilson. Unfortuantely, the Ravager got away with supernatural help from his father, and many questions were left unanswered.

Raven also found herself in the middle of a strange relationship with a young man named Trevor. Ironically, Trevor, though for the most part a honest individual, possessed an extreme bias against metahumans. Raven, disguised as a civilian named Rachel Roth, earned his trust, but now dreads the day he discovers the truth and the way he will react to it. And all the while, Trigon the Terrible, her evil father, looms in the back of her mind, waiting for the proper day to conquer the planet.

After many trials, the Titans that had set out for outer space at last made it to the ruins of the great temple on the barren remnants of Tamaran... where Ragnarok revelaed himself to be Delirium!

Or so it seemed. A battle that spanned two star systems ensued, only to end the same way it had before; Delirium, Ragnarok, and Starfire as the last Titans standing. But in this world, a last minute interference by Beast Boy allowed Ragnarok and Starfire the opportunity to turn the tide, and Delirium was crippled, ending his career as a supervillain. And for seven weary teens, the world was right again.

Yes, seven. For an artifact discovered on Tamaran succeeded in acomplishing a task that Ragnarok alone could not--the ressurection of Terra.

And so, three weeks later, the Titans finally enjoy some rest and relaxation. But how long can it last...?

* * *

**Chapter One: Only New Beginnings  
**

Things were going unusually well today in the bustling town of Jump City, California. No criminals, no explosions. No Slade threatening the city. It was a stark contrast from the previous week, in which the Titans had been called out to repair a long-range interstellar transmission satellite while the JLU had been busy trying to get the Watchtower back in it's proper orbit from the havoc Delirium had caused to it three weeks earlier after destroying Tamaran and almost killing off the Teen Titans.

Then there had been that incident where Val-Yor had come down and requested that the Titans help him with his genocidal crusade against the Locrix machine race of the planet Sention. But Ragnarök had talked some of what seemed like sense into the Titans and Val-Yor had gone of on his own. He hadn't been heard from since.

But the biggest ordeal of the previous week had been when Slade and his son Grant the Ravager had shown up and burned down an old district of town, only to lead the Titans to a library. A very old library. There the Titans had heard a prophecy:

_The gem was born of evil's fire _

_The gem shall be his portal _

_He comes to claim _

_He comes to sire _

_The end of all things mortal!_

In the mean time, Raven had vanished. She returned to the tower and opened a portal to her home dimension Azarath.

But she discovered it was destroyed, her mother and her people seemingly slain in cold blood by an other-dimensional demon.

Meanwhile, the Titans were getting their butt's thrashed by the combined forces of Slade and his son, wielding the flaming powers and bearing the mark of Skath. The same Skath who was later revealed by Raven to be none other than Trigon the Terrible, a demon born of the sum of human sin—a literal incarnation of evil!

* * *

But the events of the previous week were unimportant now. This Saturday evening, only one thing mattered. 

"NO! I can't believe you just passed me!" Cyborg yelled at Collin Roberts, the newest Titan.

_Video Games._

"Believe it. Racing games are my thing. And MechRacer is the—GLOMP!" Collin swore as Robin's missile tore into the back of his hovercar and destroyed it.

"You really need to work on your swearing, man," Cyborg commented.

"He doesn't need to work on anything but watching his mouth," Robin admonished.

"You know, glomp isn't a bad word in your dimension, Tim," Collin told him."Why do you care?"

"What's the deal with that anyway?" Cyborg asked, as his MechRacer clashed with Robin's... "What exactly does glomp mean on your earth?"

"To violently bludgeon," Collin replied, hitting a boost pad that sent his car blazing forward into laser range of Robin's and Cyborg's.

Robin glanced over at Collin and arched an eyebrow, and the new Titan used that moment of distraction to blast Robin's car off the rail-free tracks, effectively ending his game.

"Ha! You just got stomped," Collin commented as his racer crossed the finish line in a respectable second place.

Robin fumed, and a vein throbbed in his forehead.

"You may have gotten second," Cyborg said smugly, "but with only two players left, second is still last."

Now Collin fumed. But he hadn't quite mastered the art of veinthrobbing yet. So he didn't' do that.

"Well, this would be more fun if Gar was hear," he sighed.

"Where is the little green man?" Cyborg remarked.

Robin shrugged. Collin shook his head.

"I believe," Starfire said, floating into the room and taking a seat next to Robin, "That Beast Boy has gone to see Friend Tara."

"Again?" Cyborg stood up. "That's the third time in as many days. Guy's gonna burn himself out."

Starfire leaned to Robin and spoke quietly, though everyone still heard her, and Robin really had no idea why she was speaking in such a manner. "Robin, do you think Tara will ever be allowed to stay here with us at the tower again?"

"I don't know, Starfire. That depends on a lot of things... What we might think is best for us might not be what's best for Terra."

* * *

Gar Logan, the changeling teen known as Beast Boy, neared the room near the back of S.T.A.R. Lab's Jump City division, and made his way to the familiar door with the familiar name plate on it. 

**Tara Markov **

**Subject X-943**

Her name had once been Terra. She had been a good friend.

Then she had betrayed the Titans, trying to kill them in cold blood, under the orders of a madman known to the Titans only as Slade. He had taken her in after she'd fled the Titans in a fit of petty, selfish fury caused by an imagined betrayal. Slade had warped her mind to serve his purposes, and gave her control of her dangerous powers. And in the end, her world had collapsed on her, and she had turned on her wicked master, destroying his body, and then sacrificing herself to save the town.

But neither deed had lasted.

Slade had returned, and Terra was healed by the power of the Tamaranian catalyst of regeneration.

Ironic--Raven Cyborg had tried for nearly a year to find a cure, and had given up. Nothing that had tried to save Tara with her interest in mind had worked.

Then Ragnarok had come a long, and, with Beast Boy attacking him in a fit of unthinking rage, it had taken something drastic to release the green teen from his angry stupor. That drastic action had been the healing of Terra...

Beast Boy entered the room.

"Hey, Tara."

The young blonde was on the far end of the room, in a corner with a special floor and ceiling, sparring an image, a hard-light hologram, that looked remarkably like Collin in a Slade's apprentice outfit. She was wearing a simple white karate gui.

It struck high and she dodged it, kicking out faster than Gar's eyes could track and trying to trip him. The hologram jumped the kick, and flipped over Tara and delivered a series of very fast punches, which Tara blocked three of and countered the last one, twisting the holographic dummy into a joint lock and tossing him out of the hologram floor.

"Hey, Beast Boy!" she said, turning the hologram off and running across the room to greet him.

"Tara," he said, and hugged her. "That was amazing!

"Yeah. Slade was many things, but he was no fool. He suspected that my powers might have given out one day, and he trained me in empty hand and sword techniques. I just never needed them--until now."

"Any sign of your powers returning?"

"Nope." Tara looked down, her hair falling to cover her right eye.

She's so beautiful like that, Beast Boy thought—well. She's beautiful period. "That's too bad."

"Too bad?" Tara echoed. "No. My gosh, Gar. You know how great it feels just to be normal for a change. No worrying about accidentally causing earthquakes, no evil overlords coming after me. It's... liberating."

"I was normal once," he joked. "Trust me. It's highly overrated."

Tara laughed. That was one of the things Gar loved about her. She actually laughed at his jokes. "If you say so," she said. Tara walked over and picked up a large plastic cup and took a sip. "Protein shake," she explained. "I don't know if it was the loss of my powers or if whatever Ragnarök zapped me with, but my metabolism is seriously altered."

Terra untied the loose fitting belt and removed the gui top. Underneath, she was wearing a black sport's bra that went all the way up to her neckline, and on it was a blazing yellow "T"...

Gar didn't know if it stood for Tara, or Terra, or Titans. And he barely even noticed it for that matter, because Tara's figure—or more accurately how much it had changed—was far more striking.

"Whoa! You've beefed up!" he blurted. Tara's stomach, once so thin she appeared nearly anorexic all the way up until the day she was turned into stone, now appeared to have a fully-fleshed out figure--fit, but not overly muscular. She looked much closer to her sixteen years than ever.

"I've always had a bit of a growth stunt," she said. "I guess that Catalyst thing fixed that up."

Beast Boy smiled. "You look great. I guess you had a lot of growing making up for after spending ten months as a statue."

"Yeah."

"So, are you thinking about coming back and living at the tower with us again ?"

"No. I'd get in the way."

"Tara, if this is about Raven I can make sure--"

Tara cut him off. "It's not about the witch, OK? Well. It's not just about her. Gar... look. I'm flattered that you come up here so often. It's nice to see that someone has really forgiven me. But Raven and Robin don't trust me. And I can't stay there with that sort of conflict. OK? It's not you, Beast Boy. I've done terrible things. Things I regret, and things not everyone has forgiven me for. I can't come back and be Terra. I don't even have powers anymore."

"You have skills. Robin doesn't have powers."

"But it's not just that! Aren't you listening, Gar? I almost destroyed the town. And nobody is going to trust the Teen Titans if I'm in the tower. Nobody. It's nice here. They've offered me a job cleaning up, and I can make good money here."

Beast Boy looked around at the mostly sterile, sheer metal environment of the S.T.A.R. Complex. It didn't seem like a place he'd want to stay.

"You're sure about this?" he asked.

"Yes. Maybe someday I'll rejoin the Titans, things will work out. But not now. Please."

"OK." Beast Boy tried to change the subject. He glanced over into a corner of the room and saw a set of weights. "Geez. You lift weights?"

"I have to. Working here, you never know what's going to happen. STAR Labs New York is where Cyborg's mother was killed, you know. Dangerous stuff happens here."

"Right. Anyway..."

Suddenly, before Gar could finish his sentence, his Titan Com began to bleep. He opened it and Robin's face appeared on the small screen. "Beast Boy," he said. "We need you back at the Tower. It might be trouble."

* * *

There is a bar in Jump City, on the bay, at the very corner where it empties into the Pacific on the south side. It is called the Noisy Lighthouse. It's called this for two reasons. One, it's bright neon signs have for years acted as a beacon for ships entering Jump City's massive harbor complex. So useful it was, that the owners changed the sign to resemble a giant neon lighthouse, and it has prevented many a ship from slamming into the sheer cliffs on the south end of the city on many a dark and stormy night. 

The other reason, is that it is excessively close to a corner in the rode, and faces oncoming traffic so that the headlights of passing cars shine into the windows and door as they zip by, casting a sheer white glow on the whole establishment and causing a terrible racket in the process.

Other than those rarities, the Noisy Lighthouse was completely ordinary. Well... except for one instance in which an inadvertently radioactive lager had given a visiting San Fransisco man the power of super strength, but only when he was drunk.

None of that had the slightest inkling of anything to do with why Raven was there.

"What would you like to drink," the bartender asked the couple sitting at the table.

"I'll have..." and the young man went on to repeat the name of a beer Raven had never heard of before.

"And you?" she asked Raven.

"I'll just have tea. If you have it."

"Of course. It is a bit early for alcohol." The bartender walked off.

Raven let out a frustrated sigh, with a bit of guilt mixed in. "Trevor. We really shouldn't be here."

"It will be okay," replied Trevor Washington, the young man Raven had been, dare she think it, dating for the past three weeks. "For someone so concerned about breaking the law, you didn't really have a problem making a fake ID."

Raven sighed and looked again at the ID card she carried with her. "Allison Grover," it said. Date of Birth: October 1, 1980. The normal Caucasian human pictured looked exactly like Raven currently did, using the power of the image falsifier rings that Cyborg had developed to look like a nearly 28 year old woman.

When Trevor had asked her how she managed to look so much older than she was, she had lied, telling him she was good with makeup. Though in reality, few things could be father from the truth pertaining to the perpetually grey-skinned teenager.

"Well I have a problem with it now," she insisted. "Trevor, you're a nice guy. But I can't keep... seeing you if you insist on doing things that are illegal."

"Like you're sworn to uphold justice," he joked. A jab at Raven's misgivings and at her insistence that the Titans were only there for the good of the citizens of Jump County.

It came across as a stinging blow and an amusing irony. Trevor still did not know Raven's real identity. To him, she was just Rachel Roth, the absurdly calm, sarcastic, but beautiful girl he'd met at an ice cream shop.

The bartender arrived, handing Trevor his underage beverage and Raven her tea.

And no matter how much she hated the lies, she couldn't tell him she was a Metahuman. Because he hated Metahumans. He didn't trust them. But why did that matter? What did she lose if they parted?

Oh yeah. The only one on the planet she could talk to about her father.

But, no... even that wasn't an issue anymore. Because now that the Titans knew about Trigon and her destiny, she could talk to any of them about it. She didn't have to refer to it vaguely to them. She didn't have to lie or hide the truth anymore.

And yet she continued to see Trevor, now lying to the people who cared about her most, telling them these nights were spent searching for way to stop or defeat Trigon that didn't involve Raven dying before the day came.

The constant lying was almost more than she could take. She sipped her tea. The truth had to come out. She simply enjoyed Trevor's company. Nothing else to it. He was, for all intents and purposes, her boyfriend.

She gazed off into the other faces of the dark barroom. She couldn't see any of them, so she probed with her telepathic powers. And inexorably they drew her to one near the window, in an older booth in the corner. A car went by and its headlights filled the bar with light.

And she knew. The stranger from the pizza parlor, and the one who had given her the shard of mystical metal in the T-Tower two weeks earlier.

He was here, in the bar.

Watching her.

And he knew she knew. Raven stood up and shot across the room so fast, it looked like she floated (and indeed she did, though Trevor didn't know it.) Raven grabbed the man by the arm and lifted him out of his seat, secretly using dark energy which her body concealed from Trevor.

"What are you doing here?" She demanded. "Are you stalking me? Who are you?"

"'Making sure you don't get hurt'. 'Yes, I'm stalking you'. And 'I already told you,' in that order."

"A friend?" Raven asked, bewildered by his voice that was somehow cynical and world weary, and yet very caring for her.

"Yup."

By this time, Trevor had made it over there, and confronted the slightly older red-haired man. "Rachel," he said. "What's going on here? Is this guy someone you know?"

"We've met before," she said.

"That doesn't sound like the most friendly terms," Trevor said. "What do you want with her?"

"I just want to protect her," the man answered. "I don't want to see her hurt."

"You think I'm going to hurt her?" Trevor blurted, clenching his fists.

"I can take care of my own emotions..." Raven warned. By now they had drawn the attention of the bar's other patrons.

"I know," the red haired man said. "Besides. It's not like your heartache is the end of the world, right?"

Raven reeled from that. How did this stalker no so much about her? A terrible thought crossed her mind for a moment... Her mother had said that when she met Trigon, he had appeared to her in the form of a handsome man to seduce her...

But that didn't seem right. The young man was at least two years older than Raven, and certainly wasn't strikingly handsome in the way a demon's deceptive avatar would be. The stranger walked towards the establishment's bathrooms, leaving Raven with Trevor.

"What was that all about?" Trevor scratched his head.

"I.. uh..." suddenly, a buzzing noise caught Raven's ear and relief washed over her. "My uh... cellphone," she said, referring to her Titan Com. "I have to go. Like _now_."

"Alright," Trevor said absently. He focused and let out a cheery, but still confused "Later, Rach."

Raven ran outside and opened her Titan Com. "Raven," Cyborg's voice and face said. "You're needed at the tower. We might have trouble." Raven teleported back to save time. She'd... come up with something to tell Trevor later.

More lies...

* * *

"What's going on?" Beast Boy asked as he landed in ops and turned back into a human. 

Cyborg explained. "A ship just entered the atmosphere and is heading straight for the city."

"Straight for the Tower," Robin corrected.

"That sounds dangerous," Collin said.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious," Raven sighed. Ragnarok had a propensity for getting on Raven's nerves that almost surpased even Beast Boy's. Almost.

"Please, there is no time for arguing," Starfire pleaded. "The ship is almost in visual range." Cyborg turned on the monitor, and the tiny dot, magnified by the Tower's powerful scopes got bigger.

When it came into view, Starfire gasped.

"What is it? Is it Gordanian?" Robin asked.

"Is it the Citadel?" Raven's voice was calm but concerned.

"No..." Starfire said as the shock wore off. "It is... Tamaranean."


	2. Prologue: Visitors From a Dead Planet

**A/N:**_ Have to give credit where it's due. Legend Maker helped a lot on this one, especially with the argument between Trevor and the Stranger._

**

* * *

Chapter Two: Visitors From a Dead Planet**

Trevor followed Rachel out of the bar, shortly after he watched the red-haired stranger disappear around the corner of the bathroom hall. He mostly wanted to make sure the psycho didn't put a knife in his back, or something…

He looked around. Rachel was gone. Odd, he thought; she disappeared awful quickly. Oh well, might be best to let her have her secrets. She'd said she wasn't allowed by her father to even have boyfriends, so perhaps it was best if he let her have her space.

Realizing, suddenly, that he had to use the bathroom, Trevor ran back into the dark establishment and entered the men's room… Forgetting until it was too late that his girlfriend's stalker was in there too.

"Hello," he said, as Trevor entered.

Trevor gasped in mild surprise and swore. "Listen, man, I don't want any trouble. What problem do you have with Rachel?"

"My problem isn't with her; it's with you."

"I'm not going to hurt her. I—"

"You're a nice guy, right? Well, for a nice guy, you're an awfully bigoted person." The stranger held up some photos—photos Trevor had taken for his uncle's newspaper. Photos of the Teen Titans, the city's so-called heroes, fighting so-called supervillains and destroying half the city in the process. They included before and after shots of the battle in front of the bank, where the schizophrenic teenager known as Flare had burnt down half the courtyard, and a random comment by Ragnarok had caused one of the bank's walls to fall over. One showed the blue-clad female called Raven, her hood over her face, her eyes split into four and glowing red while she dragged a middle aged man underneath her cloak. He seemed to be screaming in terror. All the photos had been used in an op-ed piece Trevor had written under a pseudonym about why teenage metahumans and superheroes in general were nothing but trouble, why he didn't trust them, and why their vigilante crusades should be banned permanently.

"What do you and Rachel have to do with metahumans?" Trevor asked.

The man responded by single-handedly forcing him against the wall of the bathroom. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"You're one of them!" Trevor hissed. "You're all the same—Gestapo Nazis who think it's their job to police the world."

"Right. Next time some demi-god goes on a rampage and slaughters half the town, let's see you stop him." After a beat, the man said, "Funny that you call me a Nazi. Hitler believed in the purity of the race and the extermination of all who didn't fit it. We believe in the right of life for any and all, even those who really don't deserve it. Are you one of them?"

"I don't want the metahumans dead. I just want them out of business. And what does any of this have to do with Rachel? She tolerates my opinions, even if she disagrees. And—"

The stalker cut him off by increasing the pressure he was applying to Trevor's solar plexus, which caused extra pain.

"You talk. You never listen. Better break the trend—and know this. If you break her heart, I'LL BREAK YOU." As if to accent his statement, the man's hand was briefly covered by something white and shimmery, and he punched the wall, breaking several of the faded ceramic tiles.

"Rachel said she didn't know you," Trevor replied through the increased pain and sudden realization that he was in it deep…

"You're so dense. I'm sure there are a lot of things she's hidden with you around." The man threw him against the sink. "Be sure to wash you're hands when you get done. Some of the stupidity might come off."

* * *

The Titans gathered on the shore of their island and watched as the vessel newly identified as Tamaranian grew closer. 

"What do you think?" Cyborg asked Robin.

"I don't know what to think. Star, is it possible that there were other Tamaranians off world when it was destroyed? You're species can go into space without a ship, so maybe some of them got away."**  
**

"Of course," Starfire said. "There is most always some portion of the population not on the planet, but I do not know how any of them would know to come here. My departure was common knowledge on my home planet, but… not my destination."

"Then we have to prepare for the possibility that this isn't what it seems," Raven said evenly.

Ragnarök eyed the ship with his threat-assessment goggles. During the three weeks since Delirium had been defeated, Starfire and Cyborg had helped reprogram his suit to display information in English instead of Tamaranian. Well. Cyborg had done most of the actual programming. He mostly just watched. But I digress.

"I'm not really getting anything threatening from the ship," Collin said.

"Keep you're eye on it," Robin warned. "If anything can detect a threat from a Tamaranian ship, it's a Tamaranian battle armor."

After what seemed like a few minutes of the ship getting closer, it had grown from a speck in the distance to a sleek fist-sized triangle looming over Jump City. Cyborg used his left eye to determine it was about ten meters in length and five wide—roomy enough to hold a decent-sized group of Tamaranians as long as they weren't all as big as Galfore.

Unfortunately, just as it cleared the city and started over the bay, Collin's visor blipped suddenly and an ominous red laser sliced into the port engine and dragged along the ship's hull, causing it to whir out of control.

"What was that?" Beast Boy blurted.

As if in answer, more lasers blasted out from somewhere across the bay, several of the beams tearing through buildings. Explosions were heard.

"It came from the city," Robin gasped, tracing the beams to their point of origin.

"My visor has a lock on its location," Collin said.

"But what are we to do about the ship?" Starfire said, trying to placate the suddenly frenetic mood.

Robin took out a pocket computer and switched it to receive news reports. He quickly found what he was looking for: a news crew shooting live footage of Dr. Light and Professor Chang together in downtown Jump City. Light was robbing a jewelry store while Chang covered for him with some sort of laser cannon mounted on a truck—a Zynothium laser cannon.

"Crap!" Robin swore. "Must they always be a thorn in our side?"

"What do we do, fearless?" Cyborg asked.

Robin thought for a quick moment and then said. "Starfire, Beast Boy, and myself will stay here and handle the ship." He looked at Cyborg. "Victor, take Raven and Collin and stop Chang and Light before somebody gets killed." Collin saw Raven smirk. Which she didn't do a lot, except when it came to Dr. Light.

"Agreed," Cyborg said. As Raven's soul self began to teleport them, Collin heard him mutter, "Of course he gives himself the easy job."

* * *

A flash beam slammed into the window of the jewelry store and Dr. Arthur Light burst out of it, wearing a suit similar to the one he had worn when he had encountered the Titans on the oilrig… and then he decided he didn't want to think about that embarrassing incident. 

"I have the jewels!" he proclaimed to his current partner, Professor Chang.

"Good. Now hurry up and let's get out of here."

"Uh-oh," Dr. Light gasped as he pointed to the sky.

"What?" the psychotic oriental man asked whirled around in the swivel chair mounted atop his Zynothium laser-cannon truck.

"Titans."

Three of the now six-strong teenage superhero group appeared in a wave of black energy. "You know," Cyborg said, "for villains who base their powers off light, you guys aren't very bright."

"We were outside the Tower," said Collin.

"And had no idea you were even in town," finished Cyborg

"Then you shot down that ship." Raven raised her hands and dark energy encased them. "It didn't take long to figure out where you were."

Dr. Light looked over at Chang. "I _told_ you that ship wasn't them! I _told_ you to leave it alone, that it would serve as a great distraction for us to operate under! You're an imbecile."

"Do shut up," said Chang. His gun hummed with activity, and the Titans dodged away as a red laser flashed out and tore up some asphalt. "You won't stop me this time! I will soon be more than you can handle! Even Slade won't hold a candle to me!"

* * *

Down in hell, Slade looked up, his remaining eye flaring. "I beg to differ," he said. 

Trigon chuckled.

* * *

The Titans dodged randomly as Light and Chang shot at them, until Cyborg assessed the situation and gave orders. "Raven, Light is scared to death of you. Take him out. Me and Rag will get Chang." 

The two gave an affirmative, and Collin charged at Chang's truck, through up a rock in defense as Chang shot at him, and then hurled several more stones, which Chang unfortunately shot out of the air.

Cyborg opened up with his sonic cannon, but it had little effect on the solidly built machine. "Crud!"

…

Meanwhile, Raven was encountering her own difficulties. "I thought I convinced you to stay in jail, Light," Raven said as she hovered closer.

"Well, with the help of much therapy, I've _finally_ completely recovered, and I no longer fear you, child." With a wave of his hand, Light caused a flash of white radiation to blind Raven, and he followed up with a flash beam that hit her in the torso and sent her flying into a brick coffee shop across the street from the successfully robbed bling store.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" Raven's dark energy surrounded some chairs in the coffee shop, and they flew out, pelting Light. After two or three hit him, he fired flash beams at the others, breaking them apart.

"Zinthos!" Raven said again, and a wave of darkness shot forth from her hand and slammed Light in the chest. With a grunt, Light blasted another stream of radiation in defense, and then the beams collided, exploding with a flash.

…

Cyborg rolled away, and gasped in horror as Chang's laser tore through the coffee shop, and he hoped that nobody had been inside.

"Well," Chang mused, "it seems this method is getting me nowhere." Change pressed a button on his console, and suddenly the high-tech laser went through a series of transformations, the basic gist of which was the core focusing tubes splitting into seven separate smaller cannons, effectively making Chang's weapon a laser chaingun. "This should do quite nicely," he said.

Cyborg swore and ducked behind a car, which was soon riddled with holes—he managed to dive away just as the car exploded, and his shaved head felt the heat and his metal body detected shrapnel impacts. That was far too close.

Ragnarök tried again, this time by using a hundred smaller rocks mixed in with a few big ones to tear through Chang's defensive blasts and disable the cannon, but no such luck as just the opposite happened and Rag almost got blasted as the lasers tore through his rocks like tissue. He dived next to Cyborg who was firing his sonic cannon, and quickly erected a rock-shield several feet thick. Then he poured all the energy his Tamaranian armor could spare into holding it together under the continued laser bullets from Chang's gun.

"How do we beat this thing?" Collin yelled back at Cyborg.

More lasers impacted the rock, and Collin continually had to pull the dust they kicked up back into the rock face or it would collapse—and it was making him very tired.

"Beats me. I could use my missiles, but that might kill him."

"Normally, I'd say that was a bad thing, but if you don't do something, he's going to kill someone else. Namely US." Chang must have switched his laser power up to _high_ because each blast was taking more and more of his shield away, and it was getting harder and harder to collect it; Rag naturally lost a little each blast anyway from what ever portion Chang was vaporizing. "I'm going to give you cover. When I say go, jump. Fire your missiles as soon as you see a break in my shield!"

"Right!"

Collin focused his efforts and thinned the rock shield, throwing it up in an increasingly thin tower, and leaving a tiny break about six meters up. But he continued to form the wall higher for about ten meters.

The ploy worked, and Chang continued to fire at the upward moving top of the tower while Cyborg appeared in the middle, his missiles armed, and unleashed the lot of them. Chang realized too late he couldn't get the laser back down fast enough to stop all of them…

They slammed into Chang's truck, and he dived away from it with frantic haste, and rolled to a stop, ironically, near a stop sign, as the laser-vehicle exploded into a brilliant ball of fire.

Cyborg landed with a grunt.

"Score one for effective misdirection!" Collin gave Victor a thumbs-up, and the half-machine teen returned it.

"Boo-yah!'

* * *

Back at the tower, it became increasingly clear that with whatever control they had left, the Tamaranian vessel was going to crash land on Titans Island, and no attempts at communication had been made. "Get ready," Robin ordered. 

The vessel came in low, and the ground shook from the roar of the remaining engine. The gyrating ship slammed into the ground with enough force to knock Robin and Beast Boy down, and it continued to skid across the island…

"Not the tower! Not the tower!" Robin said. He couldn't be heard over the roar of the ship, and he knew it, so he added "Bruce and Silas will kill me if it's damaged!"

The ship slid to a halt, digging up ground. Much to his detriment, the starboard glider-fin had punctured the side of the T-Tower, and Robin was ready to go postal.

"Tim," Starfire whispered. "Calm yourself. Let us rejoice that our home was not toppled."

"Right." Robin realized she indeed was. It could have been worse.

The three Titans slid down the hill and approached the ship, where Starfire led them to a hatch big enough for Galfore, still holding a feint red glow from the heat of entering the atmosphere. Starfire hovered, starbolts ready to fly, while Garfield prepared to assume the shape of a gorilla or elephant…

Robin drew his bo-staff and some knockout gas Birdarangs. Batman had taught him to be prepared for anything, especially having to fight people he thought were friends, and together, though Robin had found it terribly distasteful, they had researched methods of taking out Tamaranians. (Which would have been _really _good if Robin had been able to remember them when Blackfire showed up on Earth the first time; unfortunately he had not taken them seriously and therefore forgot them.)

"Be ready for anything."

"Define 'anything'," Beast Boy demanded.

"If rabid Furbies crawl out that door, I don't want you to flinch," Robin said. Gar and Kori looked at him like he was crazy. But their looks were quickly diverted when the door of the ship hissed, and began to open.

Starfire wondered if rabid Furbies would indeed emerge…

* * *

Down, but not out, Chang flipped across the street where the battle between him the Titans Cyborg and Ragnarok continued. 

"Since when can he do THAT?" Cyborg complained.

"Take this!" Ragnarök hurled a series of stone daggers at Chang with his geokenisis powers, and Cyborg shortly followed up with a shot from his sonic cannon, but all the projectiles missed and struck the road.

"Let me demonstrate the folly of thinking you can win!" Chang tapped a button on his belt, and suddenly, in several bursts of incandescence, an armored exo-skeletal battle suit formed around the deranged doctor. The arms transformed into some sort of weapon… one that proceeded to shoot at the Titans hollow cylindrical laser beams.

"AH!" Cyborg and Ragnarök dived out of the way and kept having to do so has Chang did not let up on his constant blasting.

Chang began laughing maniacally as he shot, and then… He turned one of the lasers towards Raven.

"Raven!"

"Rae!"

Alerted at the last minute, Raven formed a wall of black energy behind her, three feet thick, and held it. It held back Chang's laser, but it took all her concentration, leaving her open to attack by Dr. Light.

"Well, my dear," Light said, "It seems you're preoccupied. Then he punched Raven I the face, and continued to do so, his fists glowing with light energy. "Nobody messes with Professor Chang and Dr. Light!" He hit her again.

"Is it just me," Collin said as he hurled a rock at Chang, "…or do villains have a rather limited title selection. Professor, Lord, Doctor, Master… Did I leave any out? Ah yes. Count."

Collin jumped again as Chang's free hand blasted away the rocks. The laser continued, and passed right above Collin as he ducked, his heart skipping multiple beats.

"ARHG!" Cyborg screamed behind him.

"Cy!" Ragnarök shouted. The beam had caught him in his metallic abdomen and pushed him back into the coffee shop, and Colling gasped as the laser, finished with cyborg. Thinking quickly, Collin coated his feet in rock, and leaped ON TOP of an incoming laser beam, and dashed down it, somehow supported by the non-solid energy.

Chang gasped and turned it off, but not soon enough to avoid getting kicked in the face by Ragnarök, and the psycho professor staggered back into a car and spat up blood. "You insolent!" Rather than finishing the insult, Chang took one arm off Raven and fired both cannons at Ragnarök, who broke into a dead run, zigzagging throw off Chang's aim…

…

Thankfully for Raven, this distraction gave her the ability to drop the dark shield behind her… And unleash her rage. A black cloud of power consumed her, and her eyes split into four red piercing slits. "I should break you. I should tear your intestines out and string them across the street still attached!"

"NO! NO! Please, don't hurt me!" Doctor Light screamed. Raven could feel his fear; it was real.

The daughter of the eighth devil raised her hands, and a burst of dark power consumed Dr. Light—she tore into his mind and poured her power to one specific section.

"What did you do to me?" he asked the girl when it was over.

Raven, normal again, wiped a rivulet of blood from the cut her mouth and smirked. "I've made you completely dyslexic. You'll never be able to design and build any light weaponry. Ever again." She raised her hands, repeated, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos," causing the stop sign from earlier to break off and wrap around Dr. Light. "You aren't going anywhere."

…

Collin, on the other hand, was going places. Until he tripped and fell, slamming his chin into the ground and then skidding for half and inch, acquiring a bruise, a scrape, and a nasty headache in the process.

"It's time to say goodbye, my geokinetic friend," Chang said with a deranged laugh. The cannons on his arm seemed to whir in slow motion as they charged up, the glow gradually getting brighter.

**_SKRRWW!_**Collin rolled away, and the laser slammed into the asphalt where Collin had been, and through his excessive pain, he flicked out a rock that slammed into Chang's legs, and caused him to stagger backwards—where Cyborg burst with amazing speed out of the laundromat next to the coffee shop and tackled Chang.

"I don't care if I have to take your arms off," Cyborg said, having his hands transform into their buzz saw form, "I'm gettin' these things off!" Vic proceeded to drive his cutting tools into Chang's laser cannons, tearing apart the metal, cutting wires, and generally causing havoc with Chang's toys. Satisfied the lasers were unusable, Victor reverted his hands to normal and grabbed Chang by the collar with his left hand, and drilled him in the face with his right, knocking the scientist unconscious.

Raven, Cyborg, and Ragnarök gathered next to the smoldering remains of Chang's Laser Truck, dropped their criminals, and contacted police and S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Report," said Cyborg.

"A few, cuts, and a nasty headache," Collin said. "I think I'm alright."

"I'll be fine in time," Raven said, though the bruises on her face argued otherwise "My healing techniques don't work on myself, unfortunately."

"What about you, big guy?" Collin said. "That looks a bad." Ragnarök pointed at the melted circle on Cyborg's abdomen, which had some charred wires hanging out.

"Just a flesh wound," he said. "It's fixable."

* * *

Back at the tower, Starfire prepared to shoot the rabid Furbies that Robin believed would emerge from the crashed Tamaranian vessel. 

The door finished hissing, and slid away to reveal a dark interior. And then, a young Tamaranian male stepped out, his eyes and hair and skin color identical to Starfire's…

"AHHRGH!" She yelled and almost hurled her starbolts… until his face became visible, upon which event, her battle cry mutated into a squeal of delight. "RYAND'R!"

"KORIAND'R!" The figure screamed back. The two collided with such force that Robin and Beast Boy were knocked on their butts. Robin drew his bo staff and dashed towards Starfire to discover….

That they were hugging.

"What is going on here?" Beast Boy demanded, and the two barely noticed another Tamaranian man get off the ship. Starfire was totally oblivious to that fact.

"Friends," Starfire said, "I wish for you to meet Ryand'r. He is my brother."

"You have a brother?" Robin arched an eyebrow.

Starfire smiled and nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"And who is that?" Robin asked, pointing to the other man. Starfire's confused look turned into happiness and what looked like mild embarrassment when she saw to whom Robin was pointing.

"Karras!" She blurted, and hugged him too, though not as powerfully as she had her brother. "These are my friends," she explained, "The Teen Titans. Robin, Karras is, how do you say, my first boyfriend?"

Robin goggled. But he couldn't find anything to say.

"That was… a long time ago," Karras said, also blushing.

"Does that mean there _are_ Tamaranians left?" Beast Boy asked.

"We should wait for Victor and Collin and Raven to get back, and then Ryand'r and Karras can explain everything," said Starfire.

So they did…

* * *

Since they'd played games all their lives, Collin and Gar developed the ability to both Mangle and listen to the conversation between the more mature Titans and the Tamaranian visitors at the same time. 

"I find you're lack of challenge disturbing," Collin quipped as he drove a knife through the level boss's skull.

"Ahem," Robin growled at them. They became silent.

"Please, Ryand'r," Starfire intervened, "Begin your explanation of this visit."

"Well, when we heard of what happened to our homeworld, we began searching the system and all over the galaxy for Tamaranians who had escaped or survived somehow. A lot of us were off world at the time because we were playing Thanagar in a blur-ball championship."

Starfire goggled. "And what of Galfore?"

"He was on the planet." Ryand'r said sadly.

Karras picked up, "We didn't know where you were, since nobody told us you had gone to earth. Komand'r knew, but she never told us before she also left for Earth three years ago. We haven't seen her since."

"Then you weren't there when she took over and became Emperor of the place, either," Cyborg said.

"No," stated Karras. "Anyway, my group, which roughly translates into English as the Omega Men, found your brother and began searching. Eventually, Blackfire contacted us by subspace radio and told us you were here, so we came."

"What?" Starfire, Robin, and Ragnarök all blurted at the same time.

"How long ago was this?"

"Five Earth Days," Karras said, "why?"

"That is impossible!" Starfire blurted.

"Why is it impossible?" Ryand'r looked worried.

"Because," said Collin, "Blackfire is dead. **_I_** killed her…"


	3. Skool Daze: The Institute

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter 3: The Institute**

"Bizzy!" greeted the lanky female enthusiastically as her best friend forever darted over to join her at the locker.

"Lorelei!" Bizzy greeted back. "Oh, my gosh! How was your break?"

"Really good. How about yours?"

"Oh, it was the best!"

The girls giggled and squeed, then grew serious. "How's your dad?" asked Bizzy.

"He's been recovering well, yeah. Well. The doctors say he'll be able to use his arm again by the end of the month."

"Oh, I didn't realize it was that bad." I'm sorry. Lore had been known always to have a compassionate heart—sometimes too much so for a student of the Institute.

"Oh, by the way," Bizzy said. "I got the _Hola Gata_!" She glanced around, making sure that there was no school administration in the area, and unbuttoned her dark gray school Uniform. There was a flash of blue, and a pink and white feline, and then she redid the buttons quickly...

Both girls envied the upperclassmen. They could wear whatever they wanted to school But the lower grades had to wear the drab uniforms until they were old enough. It didn't even have anything to do with age, really. They all had equal opportunities on the entranced exam—which made the_ fresh new arrivals_ of this year very suspicious...

Just then, the nearby physical education wing doors burst open, and out came The Headmistress. An ancient monster of a woman, Terpa Mandrag had resided over the Institute for nearly thirty semesters.

"Well," she said, as she passed the two girls, her single remaining eye scanning them, her flesh turning gray-green around it, hinting at the violence that left her so disfigured. That was largely why she had started teaching at—and eventually taken over—the Institute to begin with: she did not like violence. She wanted to control it, and subdue it before it got out of hand. What better way to do that, than to educate? "Elizabeth Fahngurl and Lorelei Suethor. My star freshmen." Her nose made some sort of writing noise and both girls thought they would puke. "I trust that you will be in class before the Tardy Chime, eh?"

"Yes, Headmistress Mandrag," the girls monotoned. It was said that the headmistress could smell fear and see in the ultraviolet—to know if your skin was cold. It was possibly just a school myth, though.

Hopefully.

The principal turned and walked away, leaving the girls alone, with a good fifteen standard time units till classes began.

"So," Lore said, "what do you make of the new students that showed up and became immediate Juniors?"

"They're good, that's for sure," Bizzy replied. "The one called Tim Drake has become the Institutes new quarterback!"

"I had heard. And then there's that Victor Stone, who beat out Smurgel for wide receiver."

"Yeah. Also, there's that quiet girl who calls her self Rachel. I have Advanced Physics with her, and she has all kinds of weird notions about magic and other planes of reality."

"I heard she scared some students out of their wits when they made fun of her." Lore made a face halfway between angry and disgusted. "Something about the color of her skin, I think. Ugh. I can't stand racists."

"What about that heartthrob. Garfield Logan? He's like the total dreamiest!" Bizzy spasmed thinking about him. "Have you heard him play that instrument of his? Thing is, he's best friends with that nerd Collin. I hate that guy. He talks about politics in Astronomy class! Idiot."

"Yeah. Gar rules! I heard he's going to start something called a "garage band" in the Durgenmyer dorms. I wonder if they'll be any good."

"Maybe. The REALLY weird thing is, that all these new students are from the same place."

"I had heard that. What was it called again?"

"_K'halufor'nua_, or something like that."

"Any idea where that is?"

"Not on any planet I've ever heard of," Bizzy shuddered, her aquamarine skin contracting slightly to allow more oxygen in.

"You think Camellia Anderson will be jealous?" Lore asked. "She enrolled five months ago and is already a Senior, and these new people might get there in half that..."

"Omigosh!" Bizzy blurted. "Speaking of Camellia," she said, pointing down the hall to a tall tan-skinned Junior, her red hair bouncing back and forth as she walked, her hazel eyes. She also had curves in all the right places, and wore purple clothing of a fabric the girls had never seen.

"That's not her," Lorelei corrected.

"I know. Her name is Kory Anders. But other than the different hair color, they could be twins!"

"Now that you mention it, you're right, Biz." Kory walked on by, barely noticing the freshmen.

"And she's one of_ them. _Human beings, they're called. I hear there are about three or four of them in the Green Lantern Corps."

"Well. It is a rather plain-looking species."

**oooo**

Of course, the girls did not know the truth, that the humanity of Kory Anders was very much a ruse. For underneath the white and hazel contact lenses and prosthetic eyebrows, she was really the Tamaranian warrior Starfire, and of course, a Teen Titan.

What? Did you _really_ think I was going to write a **Highschool Fic**?

"Kory" carried her books unused to so much walking. She really wanted to unleash the unbridled joy of flight, but that would most certainly, as Robin had put it, "blow cover"...

Thankfully, she eyed Garfield Logan, who had been portraying himself as a bad boy guitarist while here at the Galactic Police Training Institute, and she was eventually able to match his pace and walk beside him.

"Have you seen anything yet, Gar?" she asked.

"Not that I can see," Beast Boy answered, "But, dude, are these alien babes worth the trip."

Kori rolled her disguised eyes. "We are not here to 'babe watch,' Beast Boy, we are here to find out why my sister is here, and how she is not dead."

"I know. Hey, look, there's Collin," he dodged, pointing towards the newest Titan, Ragnarök, sitting at a far off bench talking to a magenta-skinned Lanthian about the finer points of politics. Of course, he was trying to explain his liberal views to a member of a species that believed their deity made people spontaneously combust if they were ever to eat a cucumber, so much of what he was saying about 'tolerance' did not make any sense to the poor guy.

Collin must have seen the two, because he quickly ended the conversation and jogged over to join them, wearing a gray long-sleeve shirt and full length khaki pants. "_Hola, mis amigos de la Tierra_,"

"Dude, knock of the Spanish already. We don't need a code language."

"Indeed, in retrospect it is amazingly convenient that the Guardians of the Universe decided that the official language of the galaxy would be English, but now I do not question their decision." Starfire yawned. The artificial light of the Institute didn't replenish her the same way full solar light from Earth's sun did.. "Have you found anything?"

"Oh, have I!" Collin said, pulling out a holographic yearbook. "This place is great. Yearbooks come out at the beginning of the year, are updated daily through the wireless data network, and have full body holographic images of every student!"

"And you have found my sister in here?" Kori asked hopefully, taking the book from his hand. The only thing they had to go on was a brief commercial for the Institute, in which a face that had looked remarkably like Komand'r's was seen for a split second in a background shot.

"Unfortunately, no," Collin sighed. This place has nearly 50,000 students, and trying to look for anything alphabetically is impossible—I don't read this place's alphabet!"

Starfire sighed dejectedly. "Perhaps Tim and Victor are having better luck than ourselves."

**oooo**

"BOO-YAH!" Shouted Victor Stone as he scored yet another touchdown in the Blur-Ball scrimmage.

"Congratulations, Vic," Tim Drake shouted.

Smurgel, a towering seven-foot tall Gonradian, didn't like either of them. The humans, as tiny as they were, had somehow entered this institute just this year, and were suddenly the talk of the town. Smurgel never claimed to be the hottest ion in the isotope, but something seemed wrong about that.

Then, this little dark skinned man had broken a tackle—a tackle from a Gonradian! There was no way that should be possible! He and this 'Tim Drake' had supposedly just met, and yet they worked together in the field with utmost precision. It was either unnatural, or something was amiss.

Smurgel was going to find out.

**oooo**

Smurgel waited for the bell to ring and left the huge Blur-Ball stadium, eventually making his way to the computer lab. They had three-fuer long break for lunch, so he would have plenty of time to make his request.

"Hey, Smurgel!" called the nerdy looking biped at the most powerful of the rooms 300 computers. "What's going on?"

Smurgel waved back. Newton Kaprei was a pretty good friend. Smurgel found his rough exterior tended to drive people away, but he was a good ball player, and a decent student. The school said he would make a fine Galaxy patrol officer. And Smurgel was just smart enough to wonder if they only said that to keep him around for Blur-Ball.

Newton, on the other hand, was most certainly a star pupil in the academic sense. His species, the Targanfi, were never built for strenuous physical activity, but their mental capacity was often off the charts. Thing was, most of them were so smart, they avoided the Institute altogether and became highly paid scientists and philosophers. Newton, was, by his species' standards, considered rather dull.

"I assume you want me to help you look up information on this Victor Stone who you, in your typical Gonradian pride, perceive to have stolen the spot on the team that actually belongs to you."

Targanfi had very high standards.

"Yep. That's about the size of it."

"Figured." Newton smiled. "We have two fuers and 20 time parts before next period. Let us see what we can do."

**oooo**

It took them the whole lunch break and several fuers longer—after school had ended for the day. Newton and Smurgel sat in Newton's dorm room, bringing up every database they could find, and searching for the place the new Juniors called home. Newton skimmed through page after page of data, barely reading it any more as he went. They had been working all day and had barely gotten anywhere...

But then, something caught Smurgel's eye. "There, stop." The article they were on now was some old archived news stories about Green Lantern happenings.

Newton ceased his text scrolling, and took a breath to recalibrate his optical lobes. "Yeah, what?" he asked.

"This. Coast City..._ California_." When Newt didn't say anything, but rather gave him a puzzled look, Smurgel continued. "A few years back, a Green Lantern went psycho and destroyed a place on a backwater planet, remember?"

Newton nodded. "Yeah. Hal Jordan, I believe was his name."

"California. That's where I heard Stone is from."

"Hm." Newton manipulated the data stream and eventually, a brief blip of a file was brought up about Coast City, in a province called California. Planet's name was Earth, which Smurgel thought was weird, since to him the word simply meant dirt.

Who would name their planet 'dirt?'

"Earth doesn't have any interstellar commerce, and our data on it is limited. Other than the last two Kryptonians and a couple of botched alien invasions, we know nothing. If I could actually get within range, I could probably hack or tap into their local databases, if they have them. That seems iffy itself, though. Their tech rating is a class 45."

"That's pretty low. And makes this even more _gradking_ weird. According to this, they don't even have super-luminous travel yet. How could they enroll here if they don't...?"

"There is an unusually high concentration of off-worlders on this planet, for a class below 40. Perhaps they do have light-speed travel, but with only selective availability."

Smurgel sighed, his massive shoulders relaxing. He shrugged, and contracted his body, shrinking down from his imposing gigantic from to a smaller form that consumed less energy, and stood up, his chair squeaking in relief.

He needed to get to bed soon anyway. "We'll go there, then. Something is very wrong here, and I'm going to find out what."

"I agree, but we cant just skip school and go off on what could be chasing comet trails."

"It's not," Smurgel insisted

Newton scratched his head with a handbook stylus. "I suppose I could get us a ship. Not legally, of course."

Smurgel nodded, and left. He headed off to his own dormitory as the pneumatic door slid shut behind him with a light hiss.

**oooo**

"Well, search again," Tim insisted, glaring across the small dorm at Collin. "We aren't leaving until we find her."

"There are fifty thousand students at this place!" Collin blurted. "Looking through them all without so much as a name to go on..."

"He's right," Tim, Victor said, "it will take forever, even with a digital yearbook."

The Boy Wonder sank back on the bed and sighed. "Kori," he said to the Tamaranian, who was pouring over her own copy. "You can read this language, right?"

"I know it," she said, "but unlike verbal language, I cannot just become fluent by kissing someone. And I am, how would you say... corroded?"

"Rusty," corrected Beast Boy.

"Right."

"This would be so much easier if we only had a NAME to go on. _Komand'r _and _Blackfire_ turned up nothing. She'd have been stupid to enroll under those names anyway." Collin sighed, and lay back on the bed.

Suddenly, darkness converted his vision, and he sat up quickly. The shadows of the room came together and assumed human shape, and faded away to reveal Raven, who was using her alias Rachel Roth. She was dressed in relatively normal clothes, though they were her typical blacks and blues.

"I have a name," she announced.

"What?" Robin blurted.

Kori looked up, clearly tired. Her body _still_ hadn't adjusted to the artificial light yet. "Tell us, then?"

"Camellia Anderson," Raven said. "She enrolled eight months ago—just after you dethroned her on Tamaran. She became a Senior only three months ago, which explains why we haven't encountered her."

Collin perked up. "That still doesn't answer the question, 'who was it that attacked us with those wyorms. If Blackfire isn't dead..."

"She was dead," Cyborg said. "I gave the body to S.T.A.R. Labs myself. So either _that _ wasn't Komand'r, or _this _isn't."

"Dude, this is getting..." Beast Boy trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Raven finished. Beast Boy nodded and said she summed up his thoughts nicely.

"By the way," Robin said warningly. "I heard that you were involved in some sort of falling out today."

"Someone insisted I was a witch and somehow inferior because I'm a human. I showed them the folly of racism. Nothing more."

"Raven, you know I don't approve of you using your powers like that. Messing with people's minds is serious business. First Dr. Light, now this. If you don't be careful, you could go overboard."

"I have myself under control, Robin," Raven said, not quite unable to hide her annoyance. The mark of Skath ominously flashed on her forehead.

"Sure you do," Collin smirked. Raven and Robin both glared at him.

"Here!" Starfire blurted, her fatigue now at the back of her mind. She sat the holographic annual down on the floor and adjusted the filter to the maximum size, which made the image about four feet tall.

There was no doubt. Her skin was a bit lighter, her eyes no longer purple—the purple wasn't natural anyway for Tamaranians. She was listed, oddly, as Kryptonian in the profile. But there was no mistaking the face.

Komand'r was alive and well, and a star-pupil of the Institute.

**oooo**

That night, Blackfire sat back in her dorm, papers and books scattered about. She should have been doing her Interstellar Navigations Homework. But she could not focus. Some way, some how, despite her best intentions and best laid plans, her little sister had found her.

She sat and stared at the hologram of the new quarterback, the 'creepy' junior with 'mystical powers,' and the hot babe and desire of all the junior males.

They were unmistakably Robin, Raven, and Starfire. "I don't know why you're here, Koriand'r," she said, "but if you so much as come near me, I will**_ never _**forgive you!"

**oooo**

The following day and halfway across the enormous school, which drifted through space on a vacant asteroid like a giant floating science fiction version of Hogwarts, Newton and Smurgel made a mad dash for the airlock, ditching their student I.D.s at the very last minute to prevent school homing sensors for realizing they had left, and diving into the leaving ship just as the gas-tight doors were sealed shut with the his of air being pushed out of the seams.

"We're in," Newton said.

"Then let's go 'jack this bad boy!" Smurgel said. Their destination: Earth.


	4. Skool Daze: Game's Afoot

**Teen Titans in Colors**

"**Game's Afoot"**

Newton and Smurgel dashed to the end of the transport they were commandeering, hoping nobody sounded the alarm, or at least that nobody would identify them. Smurgel hoped this wasn't his dad's ship; they all looked alike, big green hulking things with little pleasing aesthetic and fewer curves than a Blocktrinian at a square dance.

Waving a hand, Newton opened the door to the cockpit with a burst of psionic energy, and the two stuffed themselves inside. The pilot, clearly not Smurgel's father, glanced back at them and shouted an expletive. "What are you kids doing in here?"

"Commandeering this ship," Smurgel replied, smashing a fist into the pilot's face and knocking him unconscious. "I hope you can erase his memories before we get back."

Newton gave his large friend a look of chagrin and said, "Yeah, I'll get to work on it." The smaller alien used his mental powers to lift the K.O.ed pilot and place him safely in the back and sat down at the ship's controls. "Just get back there and knock him out again if he wakes up."

**oooo**

Blackfire sat anxiously waiting for the class to end. There remained only five of what the Earthlings would call minutes, but she would have preferred five seconds. She had to stop their little investigation; without evidence, she was completely blameless. School policy was good, when you could manipulate it...

No. Best not think that way. Manipulating systems and people had gotten her screwed over more than she cared to recall.

Just four more minutes...

**oooo**

"You know how to handle this, don't you?" Vic said as he saw Tim Drake into Headmistress Mandrag's office.

"I've been trained by the best," he said.

"Yeah. No kidding." Victor glanced back at Koriand'r, Raven, and Collin. "You want to go with Robin on this, Kori?"

"I believe I will go and, how is it you term it? 'Recharge.'"

Collin smiled. "Hey! They have that giant simulated beach tanning chamber down in sector Fifty Seven. I guess me and Kori could go check it out. Get your bathing suit, Star!"

Robin glared at Collin dangerously. "You want me to hurt you? Stop hitting on Kori."

"Robin!" Starfire blurted. "I swear he has never struck me and I--"

Robin veinthrobbed. "It's just an expression, Kori. Never mind. Collin, you're going with Cyborg and Raven. Cyborg can sense stress and Raven can feel hostile intent, but if anyone tries to attack, you're the best at assessing threats."

"Right," Collin said, pulling his visor down over his eyes. It had been modified to look more like a normal pair of Earth sunglasses, which still looked quite odd to some occupants of the Institute. "Just my luck."

"Yeah," Robin said, "luck. We'll meet back at Kori's dorm at seven Pacific time, alright?"

"Right," agreed the other Titans.

After they had gone to carry out their respective assignments, Tim turned, tucking a folder containing his evidence under his arm and, and entered the imposing office of Terpa Mandrag, Headmistress of the Galactic Police Institute... He had already made an appointment, so the secretary waved him back into the room where Mandrag waited.

The door slid away and revealed her massive green figure and the single remaining eye surrounded by a huge scar and four empty eye sockets. She studied him with the one that remained.

"Ah, yes. Our star quarterback. Timothy Drake, I believe. From Earth."

"Yes," he said. "You..."

"Have a good memory?" asked Mandrag. "Yes. One of the best in the Galaxy, I'm told. I remember every excruciating detail of the day my husband died at the hands of pirates, of the day I lost my good eyes. I suppose you're acquainted with this story?"

"I've heard it a few times," Tim admitted. This was getting strange already.

"Good. It's the reason I run this place the way I do, and I suspect that your own team and your... should I say, _propensity_ to be a bit _hard _on them has something to do with things _you've_ lost yourself, Mr. Superhero."

Tim's eyes shot wide, unable to hide his shock.

"Don't be surprised, 'Robin,'" she admonished. "It doesn't take a genius to see something wrong with six students from the same state of the same nation of a backwater planet such as Earth transferring in to the most prestigious school in the galaxy within the same semester ."

He sweatdropped, and then tried to regain composure and footing. "You've known all along?"

"No, but I do my research on my students."

"Why have you not... expelled us or something."

The Headmistress made a noise that was a vague approximation of a laugh; Robin assumed that was how her species did just that. "It isn't every day that the most famous young heroes of a planet arrive at my academy 'undercover,' I believe is the word."

"Then you know what we're here for."

"Not at all, Timothy. I am not psychic, and I don't trust those who are. I was hoping that you could shed some light on this situation for me. Perhaps I could be of assistance."

Tim sighed, and approached the desk, laying out the folder and opening it. "We have reason to believe that a Tamaranian wanted for crimes on Earth has enlisted herself in this school. We don't know why. In fact, she was confirmed dead."

Mandrag reviewed the evidence, her single eye's massive pupil expanding and contracting, showing signs of strain. It was indeed her 'bad' eye. The first page she skimmed (Robin could tell because her pupil was highly reflective) was a profile of Komand'r of Tamaran. The second page, however, seemed to shock her. A photo, clearly undoctored, of Komand'r compared side by side to a 2D hologram of Camellia Anderson.

Terpa sat back in her seat and her eye grew several sizes. "This... is quite striking evidence, Mr. Drake." She seemed to consider something for a moment. "But Camellia Anderson is one of my star pupils. This accusation will not stick unless you have something more solid."

"More solid than an identical face?"

"Camellia is Kryptonian, for one, not Tamaranian."

"According to her."

"According to an infallible DNA test, young human."

"That could have been falsified." Robin said evenly.

Terpa dropped her eye and considered this. "That would require the implicit help of school staff. If the results are false, then you also accuse our medical staff of falsehood."

"Then I accuse them, because I know that this girl is Blackfire. When we tried to examine the body we thought we had, it was gone, taken or destroyed from one of the most secure facilities on my planet."

Terpa glanced over the images again. "Tamaranians have red hair."

"Listen to yourself," Robin said, on the offensive now. "Hair, eyes, even skin can easily be disguised. One of my team has gray skin, and another green. You're being irrational."

"I will not be spoken to in that manner by a student!" Terpa blurted. "Now if you'll excuse me, I am very busy. Return once you have more conclusive evidence and I will perhaps consider this matter further. Good day, Teen Titan Robin."

Robin stepped back at the volume of her voice. She was adamant, and Robin knew he would get no more from her today. "I thank you for you time," Robin lied out of courtesy.

"You really _are_ a peculiar species," Terpa laughed...

Robin turned and started to walk out the door, and then thought of something and turned back. "Kara In-Ze. Kal-El. Jor-El. Lara. Alura."

"What?"

"Kryptonian names. Of _real _Kryptonians, some of whom live on Earth. Camellia Anderson is **_not _**a Kryptonian name. You should be old enough to know that." With that, he left.

**oooo**

Collin, Victor, and "Rachel" were having better luck. They had asked around, with Raven using her mental powers to turn down other people's suspicions about themselves while simultaneously any they had about Blackfire to the forefront.

It didn't work on some people, unfortunately, and others could even feel it and block Raven out. This usually ended in the Titans leaving hastily in order to avoid a confrontation with school staff. And even so, most of the suspicions they had uncovered were just that: suspicions. No facts, no evidence, just a general distrust of the girl called Camellia Anderson.

The aforementioned 'better luck' came in the from of Anderson's shop teacher, an overweight Trillian man with lavender skin and three eyes arranged in a triangle on his forehead. "You want to know about her, huh?" he said bitterly. "She was the most conniving, selfish little brat, and..." He looked away. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't talk about other students that way. Especially the Headmistress' star pupil."

Victor stretched—out of habit, not actual need to do so—and then tried another line of questioning, eying Raven to make sure she kept pressuring his mind. "What specifically did she do wrong? Anything odd would be good. Anything you can remember."

According to Collin, the Trillian race had a notoriously bad extraneous memory, but their muscle memory was second to none. Many of their species could take a fusion reactor part and reassemble it without even knowing what it was, granted they'd done it in the past day or so. Still, as far as memories went, the shop teacher had one of their race's better ones.

"Well, there was this one thing. She kept speaking about Cerul down in the genetics lab as if he had done something to help her out. But that place is locked up tight and only bio-scientists and genetics students can enter. Cloning. Genetic manipulation. Serious stuff goes on and they don't want any idiots goofing off."

"That's not much," said Ragnarök to Raven and Cyborg.

"It's enough," Cyborg said. He thanked the teacher for the help, and the Titans left.

Conveniently, by the time the teacher finished working on his lesson plan, he'd forgotten that the three had even been there.

**oooo**

The sheer blur of hyperspace peeled away and Smurgel and Newton sailed into orbit around the star known as Sol—sector 2814 of the 3600 Green Lantern sectors.

"Wow," said Newton, "what a pathetic little place."

"Turn on the stealth systems," warned Smurgel.

"Already did."

"Good. Now let's land and get some answers."

"Not so fast, my dear Gonradian." Newton opened up a computer terminal in the back of the ship, and began running several programs.

"What?"

"I'm trying to hack into their planetary data network to see if I can find anything about them and their culture."

"Ugh. I hate research."

"That's why you'll never be anything more than a star quarterback, m'friend."

"Ah, go skinny dipping in a super-nova, you pompous fish."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm busy." Newton's fingers and tendrils began moving in overtime, adjusting the input on the computer until he had discovered how to hack into the network that these Earthlings called "the Internet"...

Newton was amazed and appalled by what he found. "This people are downright barbaric. And stupid. What's this? Pornography? Fanfiction? Ridiculous drivel! Have they no books on this world? No culture?

"Just find a way to cross reference the name Victor Stone, OK?" Smurgel said.

"'Victor... Stone'," Newton repeated aloud as he typed. Within a second, the 'website' known as 'Google' had given them over seven million matches.

The top one was unmistakable: The Tragic history of the Teen Titan Cyborg. And next to it was a picture that was most certainly the same Victor Stone at the Institute, several years younger but clearly the same guy.

"It says here," read Newton to the merely trilingual Smurgel, "that this young man was grievously injured in an accident several planetary cycles ago and had his body refitted with machine parts to save his life, greatly enhancing his physical stamina."

"But the guy at the academy wasn't part robot."

Newton considered for a moment. "This planet has rather advanced holographic technology. It's possible he has an illusion cast around him to make him appear more human."

"Hm." Smurgel leaned back. "Well, should we go planet side?"

"I think we should. We will need to confirm that he is indeed off the planet. For all we know, the Stone at the Institute could be a clone."

"Where should we start?"

Newton brought up a new page: an image of a Jump City, California on a 'post card', and in the foreground, a massive 'T' shaped tower, loomed over the bay. "We'll start here. Titans Tower."

Smurgel smirked. "Sounds good to me."

**oooo**

The duo of aliens brought their stolen craft in low over the city with the weird name. "There we go." Smurgel said, shifting the controls to take it closer.

Suddenly, a flurry of lasers burst from nowhere, and a group of anti-aircraft laser turrets uncloaked on the island and began riddling the craft with beams. "Shields are holding for now," Newton said, "but we can't continue to take this punishment. Land somewhere and we'll approach on foot."

Smurgel complied, finding a nice quite park that got a whole lot louder with the screams of fleeing pedestrians as they brought their ship down near a large water fountain.

"I thought aliens were common on this planet," Newton pondered.

"Maybe they just avoid this city. There is an extreme air pollution content around here," Smurgel said, pointing to the readouts.

"Doesn't matter. Let's go get to that Tower and to the bottom of this mystery."

The two made their way to the back of the ship's main hold, Newton pressuring the pilot's mind to remain asleep. The exit ramp lowered, and the door slid open, and a terribly warm air rushed in to greet them.

"Pleasant," Newton said sarcastically. "No, I'm just used to space."

As they stepped out, Newton's mind picked up something hostile, and they turned to see... A dark skinned young human woman. With wings. In a black and yellow striped shirt, a black haired teenager wearing blue with black pants, a red-haired youth with a primitive projectile weapon, and two short children in white and red jumpsuits.

"Hey, space boneheads," the woman said. "We're the Titans East, and you're trespassing on human property. You gonna' surrender, or am I gonna have to whop some sense into your alien butts?"

"Obviously," Newton began, "your conversational skills are lacking. But, unlike my 'enlightened' intellectual superiors, I'm not inclined to take a beating without fighting back. Plus, I have a Gonradian on my side. You guys do the math. If you can understand math, of course."

**oooo**

"Dude," Aqualad said, "he just got here, and he totally dissed us in better English than any of us speak."

"English?" Newton arched an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"_Eres loco?_" Mas blurted.

"_Es la idioma que estas hablando!_" Menos finished.

"The language I'm speaking is clearly the most common variant of Galactic. How this backwater planet knows it, I am currently unsure. Anyways. If you are going to stop us from investigating the Titans Tower, then we well have no choice but to decommission you until we have finished."

"Bring it on!" Arsenal, formerly Speedy, taunted.

"I'm not up to date on your lingo, but I assume that means you're challenging me." Newton flicked a tendril and a psionic burst blasted into Roy, knocking him backwards. The enraged Arsenal jumped to his feet and let loose a tachyon arrow, that Smurgel deflected by transforming to his massive state. The brute charged at the gasping Titans, and they dived out of the way.

"Down! Set! Hut!" Smurgel grabbed Mas and hurled him into his brother, but the contact allowed them to react to the blow in super speed, so they righted themselves quickly and charged... right into a psychic wall erected by Newton.

"More like a ten-zivit penalty," Newton commented, mixing Blur-Ball with Kugsby.

"Heyah!" Beams of yellow energy lashed out from the weapons Bumble Bee held, and struck the insectoid Smurgel, blasting him back into the landing gear of the ship. Newton countered with some mental blasts, but missed when Bumble Bee abruptly shrunk and dodged every attack. He tried to refocus into a wider spread, but was blasted by a wave of psionic energy from another source, and rolled away.

"So you're a fish-man?" Aqualad smirked. "Can you breathe like one?" he thrust his hands forward and the water from the park's fountain blasted out and slammed into Newton, sending him back onto Smurgel.

"For the record," Newton's voice returned, directly into Garth's mind, "no, I can't!" A psionic shock wave blasted through the helpless Aqualad, shorting his brain and causing him to collapse, unconscious. "Messy, but effective," Newton said.

"I'll show them messy!" Smurgel dodged away from several more arrows and the moment Arsenal misfired, he lunged for the red-haired human Arsenal, dive tackling him and laying him out with just one blow to the face.

"Ugh," Bumble Bee said to herself. "We're used to dealing with hard criminals, not aliens."

She charged, the only Titan East left conscious, becoming really small and dodging the psionic beams of Newton until she got close enough to smash his face in. She lashed with her weapon, cutting a tendril. This obviously caused him a lot of pain, because he screamed and a psionic blast knocked her back, right into Smurgel's fist.

"Nighty, Nighty, little insect!" the big insect said, smashing Bee across the park. She regained her full size and crashed into the water fountain, her wings and shrinking device shorting out in the water, and giving her enough of a jolt to immobilize her.

"We beat them quite handily," Newton said, still rubbing his tendril. "But let's hope we don't have many more such encounters."

"No kidding," Smurgel said, reverting to his smaller state.

The two left the Titans unconscious in the park, and left the ship's defense systems on automatic. No law enforcement officers even bothered to pursue them as they made their way to the Tower...

**oooo**

"Report," Robin said, leaning back on the bed of Kori's dorm room. Starfire sat in a nearby chair and the rest of the Titans gathered around them.

"I am feeling refreshed and recharged!" Starfire said cheerfully.

"Good. What about you, Beast Boy?"

"I have nothing. They wouldn't even let me into the office, let alone the permanent records room."

The other Titans stared at him. "Why didn't you just turn into a fly?" Raven asked.

"I was going to," he said, "but I just found out my powers don't even work here."

"What?" Cyborg blurted.

"How could that be possible?" Starfire asked. "Everyone else's powers work here."

"Just watch me! I'm going to try and turn into a rabbit!" Beast Boy inhaled, and then seamed to strain briefly squeezing his eyes shut tightly, before promptly becoming a rabbit. "See?" the green bunny said. "It doesn't work."

"Um, Garfield," Raven said, "you _did_ just become a rabbit."

Beast Boy opened his eyes and looked at himself. "Eek! I am a rabbit!" He reverted to human and glanced around at the other Titans. "I swear this didn't work earlier."

Collin looked down at the hologram rings and the leather jacket Beast Boy had been wearing throughout the school. "Where you wearing those when you tried?" he asked.

"Um... yeah."

Cyborg smacked his forehead. "You idiot! You can't transform with the holo-rings on!"

"Oh... right. I forgot." Beast Boy gave a nervous shrug and chuckle, and Raven sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Well, that was a waste of manpower for today. Well. Boy-power, anyway."

Robin, equally exasperated, looked over to Raven, and asked her to report. "Any luck on your end?"

"Actually, yes." Cyborg answered for her. "Her shop teacher said she had been talking like she was in on something with Cerul the head of the genetics lab. I know it's not much, but..."

"It's all we have for the moment," Robin finished. "Alright. You three check it out. Starfire, you have classes. I have Blur-Ball practice."

"Don't I, too?" Cyborg sighed.

"You've been having problems with that big bug guy, right?"

Cyborg nodded. "Smurgel Yargas."

"I figure if you miss a practice, you'll get thrown off the team, and Smurgel will get his position back. No more problems."

"_Yes_, problems," Beast Boy corrected.

"What?"

"Smurgel _isn't here_. I have Thanagarian history with him, and he didn't show up today. Rumors say he hijacked a cargo ship and jumped out of the system."

"Where could he be going," Cyborg wondered... "Unless.."

"Earth." Kori said.

"That's not good," Collin pointed out. "I think maybe someone should go back. Me and Starfire, preferably."

Robin, however, shook his head. "Bumble Bee will have to handle it. We have work to do, and there's now way we'll catch up with him anyway. Titans, move out."

**oooo**

After hijacking a boat and taking it out to the tower, dodging some more lasers and breaking the weapons that shot them, Smurgel and Newton thought they were home free. That delusion in mind, the traversed the path up to the massive structure. But when the were about fifteen zivits from the door, a powerful red beam crackled down and blasted dirt and rock around them, and the smell of ozone wafted through the air.

"What the valgross?"

The two looked up Titans Tower, to see a young man—the red-haired Stranger—standing in a window two stories up, aiming a huge energy weapon at them. "I wouldn't come any farther if I were you, off-worlders, or I'll have to send you back home in those jars they put the ashes of cremated people in."

The man leaped down from his perch, a curious white coil springing from his feet to cushion his fall as he landed, never removing the aliens from his cross hairs.

"Are you a Teen Titan?" Smurgel asked.

"Somehow, the use of the big gun tells me, 'no'" Newton said. "Though I really can't get a clear read of your mind mister...?"

The Stranger seemed to consider this for a moment. "I suppose you can call me... Oz. And I'm not a Titan. Well, not one from around here, anyway."

"Well, 'Oz', you mind if you let us in to see the real Teen Titans?" asked Smurgel, but not nicely.

"The Titans are out at the moment, but I'll tell them you stopped by."

"Any word on where they went, per chance?" Newton asked.

"I'm sure you probably have better idea than I do, huh? All I know is they blasted off in their submarine. Yeah, I said submarine. Long story." Oz said.

The aliens considered this, and then Newton extended a hand, an Earth gesture of goodwill. "Thank you, Oz. That's really all we needed to know."

With that, the aliens returned to their ship and left, leaving a very confused Oz scratching his head. "Did... I just screw that up?" After considering what should be done for a good fifteen minutes, Oz turned and went back to his hacking the Titans' computer system.

"Alright. Now, if I remember correctly, I can reboot the core system and gain access to the encryptions if I run the only game Cyborg could never beat: Super Monkey Ball 2."

Oz inserted the small disk into the mainframe, but rather than emulating a Gamecube, it began to run a completely different operation that had nothing to do with gaming. "Ka-Ching," Oz said, for the first time since he'd been stranded here, cheerfully.

"Now, to give myself some fool proof over-rides," he said to himself.


	5. Skool Daze: Learning Experience

**Teen Titans in Colors**

**Chapter Five: Learning Experience  
**

"We are so dead, you know," Smurgel commented as he brought the ship around towards the dry docks in Sector 23.

"Hm. We've assaulted an Institute pilot and kept him unconscious for two days with chemicals. We stole a transport and took it to a backwater planet. And we probably cost the school several billion Bandorian dollars in fuel and service time. Yeah. We're pretty much screwed unless we can convince headmistress Mandrag we're right."

"Can you do that? You know: mess with her mind, make her more trusting?"

"Um. The morality and utter stupidity of that aside, Headmistress Mandrag's mind is far too strong," Newton sat back. "She would feel my manipulation and have us disintegrated."

"Or worse," Smurgel bit, "expelled."

Newton shrugged. "Well, we've lived good lives."

"We're seven Septars old!" Smurgel blurted.

"I said _good_ not _long,_" Newton smirked.

Smurgel grumbled. The two sat in silence as the tractor beam took hold. Newton deactivated the engines and let the ray pull the cargo ship in, awaiting their inevitable punishment.

Unless...

"You think this ship has any invisi-shields?" Smurgel suddenly blurted, already darting to the back of the ship and frantically searching.

"You're not seriously thinking we can get away with that, are you?" Newton called back, even as Smurgel found the devices. Small belts with devices that bent light around them. Problem is, when you are fully cloaked, nobody can see you, but you can't see anybody; bending light works both ways.

"Well, if we can break into the main office," Smurgel said, snapping the belt on, "we can find our ID bracelets and get back to our dorms. Then we will pretend we've been sick for two days."

Just then, the sounds of the ship settling into the artificial gravity of the sector hanger reverberated through the ship, accompanied by a telltale thud that shook all the bulkheads slightly.

"_That's a big if,_" Newton sighed. "Fine. It's better than no plan at all. After all, we're two in 50,000 students. How conspicuous could our absence be?" he reasoned as he turned the cloaking device on, trying to make as little noise as possible as the darkness surrounded him within his hiding spot beside the ship's exit ramp.

The door slid open, but before the two could exit, a pair of armed sentries burst in. "Newton Kaprei and Smurgel Yargas," one of them said, "You are both under arrest for theft of school property."

Newton face vaulted. Well. There went all his hopes and dreams. Maybe he'd get off with just a disciplinary action and keep his life and enrollment. As the sentries made their way to the cockpit, where they would find the pilot just waking up and probably still thinking he was ready to take off.

Newton sent a telepathic impulse to Smurgel when he could feel the coast was clear. He'd have to lead, both sensing their direction psionically and leading Smurgel with him.

_I swear,_ Newton thought, _if he wasn't my friend, I'd leave him to get caught. Big oaf is not worth the effort sometimes._

**oooo**

Meanwhile, Robin was running plays for the night's big game, Starfire was studying string mechanics and Beast Boy was busy trying again to sneak into the office, this time without the ring.

And our heroes, Raven, Cyborg, and Ragnarök were on the service elevator that lead down to the bottom sector; 99. The Genetics Labs.

There were some really strange and disturbing stories that Cyborg had heard in his admittedly brief stay in the Institute. Tales of students being experimented on, of strange creatures who's very existence came from modern interstellar understanding of the specie genomes.

Cyborg just hoped he didn't have to actually fight anything. And that brought him back to reality, as he glanced around at his hardly battle-ready crew. "Collin," he whispered. "Get ready to activate your armor at a moment's notice." He glanced at Raven, who seemed to be meditating. "You ready, Rae?"

"If this comes to violence, we will have failed in our mission. But yes. I'm prepared for anything."

Cyborg arched his organic eyebrow. Raven had been unusually intense ever since revealing her destiny to the Titans, but... something about her now really scared him. Was Trigon's influence so strong, so far from Earth? If so... was their any hope at beating him?

The elevator slid to a stop, the metal corridors twisting out before them in a dull blue labyrinth made of metals and allows that earth metallurgists could only dream of. "Inviting place," Raven remarked.

Her usual sarcasm... it brought a wellspring of relief to the mechanical teen. "Yeah," he agreed. "Charming."

The three inched their way down the hall, slowly past many dead ends and such. Why make this place a maze, though? Unless there were secrets they didn't want discovered. Finally, the Titans discovered a door, like many doors in the school, metal like the corridor, and the same color.

"A classroom," Raven said, even as Cyborg peaked in and confirmed it. "All of the rooms in this hall are. But I'm sure one of these teachers knows where to find it." Raven closed her eyes and her chakra glowed.

"No," Cyborg warned firmly. "Robin said no more messin' with anyone's minds."

"How is this any different than what I did earlier."

"I let you do that," Cyborg said, "in direct violation of Robin's orders. But I'm drawing the line here, Raven. Ever since you did whatever you did to Dr. Light's brain... it's become like an addiction. You keep messing with people's minds whenever it's convenient to you. It has to stop."

"For once," Collin sighed, "I agree with the big guy."

Cyborg glanced down at Ragnarök's use of 'big guy'. "Watch it, shorty."

Ragnarök, at a loss for words, dropped his malformed comeback and let Raven speak.

"Fine. Lead on, Victor."

He reached down and adjusted his hologram ring to resemble an older being, one that clearly wasn't human. "How about we just ask nicely for a change?"

**oooo**

Blackfire burst into Cerul's office, frantically searching for the one man (well, technically he wasn't a man, but close enough) who could save her skin. "Cerul! Cerul!" she demanded. "Where the zorf are you?"

The genius Ki'lai ambled into the office, from a storage room in the back, his skin oddly matching the color of the sectors corridors hue for hue. "Can I help you, 'Camella'?" he asked mockingly.

"Yes. We have to erase all the files, everything I've done down here has to go."  
The Ki'lai smirked, "Is that so? What's the rush?"

"There are powers here beyond your control, and I assure you that they'll discover your involvement in this."

"Uh-uh," Cerul smiled. "I've completely erased my finger prints from your whole debacle. My hands are clean, and you have no evidence."

"Is that so?" Blackfire smirked. "My very blood is proof you faked the results to my DNA test."

At that, Cerul arched an eyebrow. "Point taken. But still, if you want more favors from me, I'll have to ask some more of you. That's the way I work. It's the way I've always worked."

"Zorf you," Blackfire swore at him. "My _sister_ is here, and so are her friends. If they find out what we did and show it to the headmistress..."

"I'll disavow any knowledge of this whole thing, and you'll go back to prison. Dear Komand'r, if you want my help, you'll do what I asked. End of story."

Komand'r's face contorted into a mask of rage. "How can you not care about this! Even owning a Vordlaxian Wyrm is years worth of punishment. But genetically altering one? You can get the death chair for it!"

"We'll see. Bring on your friends. I'm sure my _other_ illegal experiments will be able to handle them."

Blackfire glared back at him. "Remember this. Terpa likes me. She _despises_ you. If the Titans truly discover the real truth, you're the one going down."

"If I recall, concealing a crime, aiding in illegal activity, and obstruction of justice are all crimes too. If I go down, you go with me, Empress Blackfire."

As the Tamaranian girl turned to leave, looked back at Cerul. "Not anymore. I'm Camella Anderson now."

Cerul sat and watched her as she went. Self-righteous little troq. She would get no help from him, not after turning her back on him the moment she fell into good graces with the headmistress. A sudden light caught his eye, and Cerul looked down at the the blinking indicator on his desk. There were people trying to break into the lab! Well. Cerul would deal with it. He finished his coffee and threw the cup in the recyclochute, then got up, donned his white lab coat, and was off.

"By the time I get there," he thought aloud, finally realizing that Blackfire's concern might be warranted, "it could be too late."

**oooo**

"This is the right door," Cyborg insisted as he again tried to prize it open. "And it's sealed shut."

"Is it air tight?" Raven asked.

"Don't think so. Not now anyway. These doors only seal airtight in the cold of a hard vacuum."

"Then I can get us in."

"You take Ragnarök in. I'll stand guard."

"Why don't I get to stand guard?" Collin asked.

"Because," Cyborg said, squatting into an uncomfortable looking position and then vanishing altogether, "you can't turn invisible."

"Nice. Doesn't it hurt to stand like that, though?"

"My legs are made of metal, dude. No joint pain, ever." If Collin could have seen Cyborg's face, there probably would have been a big self-congratulating grin on it. "And thanks to Starfire's begging, Robin's been teaching you how to hack computers. And you have that visor to help you out."

"So does Raven have to come with me?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

Raven answered in Cyborg's stead. "To make sure you stay on task and don't try and use the genetics lab computers to play games or look up intergalactic dating services."

"Oh, come on!" Collin blurted. "You really thing I'm so desperate that I'll date outside my own species!"

Cyborg and Raven both glared at him pointedly, and Collin backed away with a sheepish grin. Right... Starfire... A Tamaranian...

"Fine, fine," Collin sighed. "You win." Ragnarök turned to Raven and she bid him come to her near the door.

Raven whispered some spell softly, and then shadows surrounded her and Collin. It was amazing and terrible in a way Collin couldn't describe—shadow everywhere and yet nowhere. But it subsided quickly, and they were on the other side of the door, Raven having used a spell of shadow mastery to slide through the seams of the laboratory door, through the darkness in the cracks...

Within the lab, computers and strange alien technology lined opposite walls, and it sprawled on for yards. Passages and corridors led in and out, and there was an air of mystery to the whole room. It was lit only dimly by the glow of some of what appeared to be giant stasis tubes lining one cluster of machines in near the door.

"Where should we start?" Collin asked.

"I have... no idea," Raven said she seemed... offended. Or something like that.

"What's wrong, Raven?"

"Collin... Something about this room. It gives me a sense of foreboding. As if there are abominations here, abominations of the mind that should never have been brought into existence."

Collin arched an eyebrow. "You're really creeping me out, here, Rae."

The look on Raven's face didn't change, but the two walked on in silence until they reached the nearest computer terminal. After a brief examination, the discovered how to turn it on, and then Collin got to work.

"Aren't you going to transform?" Raven asked.

"No way. If they have energy sensors like everywhere else on this rock, then they will detect me. I'll only use what's needed." Collin extended his hands and a soft glow suddenly covered them, and when it fainted, gloves had materialized on his hands, and his visor appeared on his head.

"Since when can you do that?"

"I didn't know I could, actually. I just found out as I went along that my armor will respond to whatever my immediate needs are. In this case, I need something that will help me hack this without blowing up the school."

"Just get to work. This place is..." Raven let her words trail off, even as Collin began manipulating the computer's controls.

**oooo**

"Down," Robin called. "Set. ... ... HUT!"

The center snapped the blur ball back to him, and then the two lines entered the melee. Blur-Ball, if you haven't figured it out by now, resembled American football in many ways. Twelve players from both teams lined up across the width of the field, which was approximately 50 by 100 meters, though Robin didn't know the exact length as it was given in zivits. The object, like in football, was to score a touchdown or field goal by somehow, via air or land, getting the ball to cross the goal line and into the end zone.

On the other hand, the ball was not remotely lemon-shaped. A Blur-Ball was a small sphere of a substance Robin was certain didn't exist on Earth. It was red-orange and emitted a light glow of the same color. Because of this, it tended to blur as you threw it, kicked it, etc, and yet was soft enough to mold to the shape of you hand as you would grab it, as if a fluid despite being solid.

Another difference was the equipment, which also gave the game it's name. 'Light' armor that would have been considered very heavy by the average Earthling protected players during the course of the game, and also enhanced their speed, making Blur-Ball games considerably more fast paced than football, and causing a bit of a motion blur as the players moved faster than the eyes of most species could refresh. But the biggest difference was the fact that full on combat was a huge part of the game; players were encouraged to literally fight over the ball. Though causing serious injury intentionally was a penalty, attacking a player with fists and martial arts was perfectly legal, and part of the reason Robin and Cyborg were so dang good at it. Most of it, really.

So, _melee_ as used earlier was quite literal, as the linemen clashed in front of Tim in this scrimmage—Reds vs Blues, colors of the armor the distinguishing factor. Robin happened to be red.

His pulse pounded as he scanned the line for receivers. Nothing... And the blitz was coming—he couldn't run the ball...

Then it was there, and Robin leaped up as one of the two blitzers dived underneath him, and while still in mid air, turned and kicked the other blitzer in the head, and using his body as leverage. The boost sent him a good eighteen feet above the ground, and gave him the perfect vantage point to notice the wide receiver in the spot that Cyborg had taken from Smurgel, and that he was wide open.

In a split second, Robin made the decision to hurl the sphere in his direction. It blazed out of his hand an arced towards the receiver, smashing into his hands and then bouncing off, hitting the grass with a noise to small for Robin to hear at this distance. Incomplete pass; the play was over.

The coach, not possessing lungs pressed a button that made an approximation of a whistle as he slithered over to Tim Drake and began to think to him.

"That was a very risky maneuver, son," the coach thought, "but you pulled it off like a pro. If you get a chance, I want you to use it when we play the Devils tonight."

Tim nodded, and spoke—the alien coach could hear, after all—,"Sure thing, Coach," Robin said, even if it was anything but.

Coach turned and began blogging (the telepathic equivalent of yelling) at the blue team for their poor performance and at the red offensive line for letting the two blitzers through, even as Robin retreated into his own thoughts about the mission and Blackfire, and hoping that the rest of the team was doing alright.

**oooo**

Starfire stared at Lorelei, aghast. "You think my attire shows too much of my grebnacks?"

"Sure does, hussy!" the younger girl retorted.

Um... perhaps we should leave Kori for now and go see what Garfield Logan is up to.

**oooo**

"AAHH!" The tiny green mouse screamed as the imposing janitor's Broom of Doom fell perilously towards him. Beast Boy darted out of the way at the last minute, the broom hitting the floor. The Janitor brought it back up and swung it down at him again, and Beast Boy dodged it again.

"Dude!" he screamed. "I'm a good little rat!"

"Holy mother of a star!" The feline-like Noth'xal screamed. "That rat talks!" He ran out of the room, giving Beast Boy a chance to let out a squeaking sigh of relief. This didn't last long, however, as the janitor burst back into the room seconds later, now carrying a laser canon and a power source for it mounted on his back. "DIE, little devil mouse!"

"Figures I pick a mouse and enter a room where the janitor happens to be a cat," Beast Boy muttered as he dodged blasts and tried to take cover behind the many records storage files and computers of the records room.

After a few more lasers dodged, he darted between the janitor's legs, transforming into a gorilla even as he spun around behind the man. He used the sudden change in size to throw the guard forward, ripping the power source of his back as he went... The janitor stumbled into a filing cabinet, smacking his head and knocking himself unconscious.

Beast Boy reverted to human form to celebrate, and then gasped as he realized that all the shooting had destroyed all the computers and caught the paper records on fire. "I take it that paper that doesn't burn _is _just science fiction after all," Beast Boy gulped.

Deciding it was best to get out before anyone discovered him, he reverted to the form of a gnat and took off back through the air vent, where he took the shape of a small cat and darted down the metal tunnel. _Beat that, Larry, _he thought, referring to his comrade from his days with the doom patrol, Negative Man...

**oooo**

"Holy crap!" Collin exclaimed, as he hit the jackpot.

"What?" Raven blurted, twirling around to Collin, still obviously on edge.

"I found it—the proverbial mother load. It wasn't easy, but... _DANG_. No wonder they are both keeping quiet about it."

"What?" Raven repeated.

"Blackfire. Her DNA was cloned and then modified to carry some sort of virus that breaks down exactly three cycles after death and becomes nothing but gas and water. And Smurgel did this in repayment of a favor she did for him, I bet. A very illegal one."

"So..." Raven realized, "that Blackfire we fought on Earth was a clone."

"That's not all. The Vordlaxian Wyrms we fought on Earth were also clones, though there is no record of genetic manipulation on this computer. It doesn't mean it didn't happen."

"This is big," Raven said. "I think this will be more than enough to convince anyone but the stupid or the willfully blind."

Collin downloaded all the information onto a data storage until that Starfire had told him was compatible with most of the computers in the galaxy. Suddenly, Raven's head jerked back, an then twisted around as a burst of psychic presence hit her.

"Who's here?" Rag blurted, turning around and looking the direction Raven was.

And there he stood—Cerul. Holding an unconscious Victor Stone in by the throat.

"You guys are good," Cerul said. "But you've still been caught."

"_Glomp_!" Collin swore, "he took Cyborg out."

"Yes, I did," Cerul said, "and even if he is part machine, I sincerely doubt he can survive if I crush his throat."

"You won't," Raven warned, her disguise falling away in dark shadows of power even has her hands were coated in her energies.

"Ah, you must be Raven. Empathic. _Witch._ You know, I really don't believe in magic. You think you could give me a demonstration?"

"Let our friend go. Now." Raven said emphatically.

"I will. In exchange for something. The data you've collected for the life of your friend. Fair trade, no?"

"No." Raven snarled, and suddenly, Cyborg was encased in black energy. He slipped out of Cerul's grasp and floated over to Raven, still unconscious. So she began to try and re-awaken his mind. "Wake up, Victor. Victor!" Her energies coursed through him, trying to heal and revive, but to no avail. Cerul had targeted the machine, not the man, and Raven couldn't fix that.

"Attack, him," Raven yelled at Collin, even as she went back to helping Vic.

Collin complied, as a burst of light covered his body and bringing a modified version of his armor. "I don't have any rocks or dirt!" he warned.

"Then attack him with your fists."

The modified armor diverted most of the rock moving energies into extra protection on the arms and legs, and this version enhanced Collin's strength by three fold.

The human from another universe charged at Cerul, who just stood there. Ragnarök found out why when he suddenly slammed into nothing, a burst of energy coming from nowhere and knocking him flat on his back. "Ouch."

"Force shield," Cerul said. "My own design. It would take a starship cannon to puncture it."

Then he pulled out an alien pistol and began blasting at Collin, who used his threat assessment goggles to both detect and leap away from the attacks, barely dodging the incoming laser blasts. One whizzed by his head, causing him to miss his jump and slam into a computer panel. Mild pain wracked his side, but he shrugged it off as Cerul shot again, this time into the terminal, causing sparks to fly from it.

"Oops. It looked like I just blew up the hard evidence." Cerul joked. "Now hand me the data-cron and I'll let you go."

"NO!" Raven blurted, finally miffed enough to leave Victor for a moment and focus her dark energies on Cerul. A piercing bolt of dark power blasted out from her hands as she finished the word Zinthos, and Cerul's eyes enlarged at the sight. He brought up the projector of his force shield and focused the protection into a bright yellow beam that collided with Raven's—and held.

For all of two seconds, at which time the shied overloaded, exploding even as Cerul shook it from his injured hand. "That's not possible!"

"Magic," Raven reminded him.

Cerul, however, wouldn't be this easy to defeat. He reached into his pocket and quickly removed a remote and pressed the sole button on top... And the door to the lab slammed shut behind him, in addition to several huge reinforcing blast shields and another forcefield. Collin dived at him, even as a sheer white beam disassembled Cerul's molecules and teleported him out of the room, leaving Raven and Collin to contend with...

**_THEM._**

Raven's eyes and heart exploded with fear when she realized what was going on—the stasis tubes on the far end of the wall fell open, and **_THEY_** came out.

"NO!" Raven blurted as whatever had held back the emotions of the tortured fell away. With the floodgate open, Raven found herself blasted by a wave of indescribable horror and rage. "ABOMINATIONS!" she hissed, bringing her hands together and chanting a spell that Ragnarök had never heard before.

A drill of fire and dark energy shot forth from her hands and plowed into the chest of the first to emerge from it's cryogenic prison. It was a 15 foot tall slathering beast with pincers and antennae and six limbs, a giant insect that looked disturbingly familiar.

"What the blue-blooded snorkel is that?" Collin blurted, joining Raven's side.

"It... used to be a Gonradian," Raven almost cried. "So... empty. So full."

"Full?" Collin glanced wearily.

"Of hate. Of fear. But devoid of humanity."

"Gonradianity," Collin corrected.

Raven said nothing, as the second tube hissed open, revealing another beast, feline, but not at all gracefully, female but not soft. A terrible roar escaped it's mouth.

"It used to be a Noth'Xal!" Collin gasped.

Then the third one came out, and the sinking feeling in Raven's stomach got a lot worse. The beast looked like a demon from the pits of the worst hell, and simultaneously like an angel—of death. Massive black feathered wings stretched ominously as it awoke, and it flew above the room without flapping them more than once... It's body was covered in metal armor that extended into a blade attached to the left wrist and a massive mace in the right hand. And Raven instantly knew that both the weapons and the armor were made of Nth Metal.

"A Thanagarian." Raven said.

"Glomp me. Glomp me to death right now," Ragnarök cursed. And if you think wanting to be violently bludgeoned is bad, remember this: Nth Metal disrupts magic. Even Raven's.

The Gonradian darted at the two conscious Titans, and Raven blasted it again, right into the hole her first blast had made in its stomach. Chunks of chitin flew off and the air was filled with an acrid stench. Collin rushed towards the same beast, only to be cut off by the Noth'Xal.

It leaped over his head, and lashed out a claw as it landed on the other side, slicing into Collin's armor and driving him back into a computer terminal. It dived at him, and he rolled away at the last second, the cat slamming into the wall and bouncing off. Collin realized he was no match for its speed and agility, so he turned his earth-moving abilities all the way off and put all the power into the limbs of armor, flipping and rolling out of the way as the Noth attacked him.

Rag found himself in a handstand just as the cat leaped over his head, and he used his enhanced arms to push off the ground, driving his feet into the Noth's stomach and driving it skyward at an angle of thirty degrees. It landed three seconds later, so you do the math on how much force he put into that blow...

Raven meanwhile blasted at the Gonradian again, cursing herself for using so much mana but knowing she had no choice. She had to win and to keep Victor alive. The Gonradian staggered and Raven realized one more shot would do the beast in, and she let it rip...

But an Nth Metal mace swooped down and knocked the blast away.

The Thanagarian.

"RAAANN!" it bellowed. Did it mean Gordanian? Gonradian? Raven knew not and cared not. The Thanagarian charged at her, the blade on it's left arm forward. Raven rolled out of the way and blasted a futile burst of magic, but it bounced off the armor and dissipated. Then the winged devil charged her, swinging the mace back to crush Raven...

"No!" Raven charged the air around her with her power, and blasted the Thanagarian with a burst of wind that knocked it skyward.

Meanwhile, Collin had his own problems, as the Noth'Xal kept coming, and he was getting weaker by the minute. Suddenly, his threat sensor blipped and pointed behind him, and Collin rolled away just in time to avoid being skewered by an insectoid leg—the mutant Gonradian. Unfortunately, he rolled right into another of it's legs, and found itself squeezing him. He searched frantically for some dirt he could use to pry himself free, but could find none. Then he realized that even if he could, his ability to use it was off.

Then, he almost panicked as the Noth'Xal dived at him, and he blasted all the power he could spare into his arms, breaking the Gonradian's grip and forcing him to let go. He rolled under the attacking Noth'Xal and it plowed into the giant bug, as both went rolling into the wall that held the stasis tubes.

Raven appeared next to him.

"I'm exhausted, Collin." She didn't know why she had told him that.

"Me too. Raven, this armor wasn't designed for hand-to-hand combat."

"Deal with it!" Raven barked as the Thanagarian swooped down at them both, mad as all get out.

The Titans dive-rolled out of the way and Raven came up with bolts of chain lighting, hoping that Nth Metal conducted...

No such luck. It crackled off the winged mutant's armor without so much as a muscle spasm. In a burst of fury, Raven turned and blasted at the Gonradian's head. But it jumped up as the Noth'Xal tried to move out from underneath it, and Raven's blast just tore through its stomach. The opened digestive tracked spewed a brown sludge that made Raven want to hurl. But she did not.

Ragnarök made a mad dash towards the Noth'Xal, whispering such things as 'here kitty kitty' and 'nice kitty' in a vain attempt to soothe the unrelentingly savage beast. The Noth'Xal moved with even more speed than it had earlier, darting behind its pray and driving a powerful kick into Collin's back. He rolled forward into the sludge that the Gonradian had leaked and got a nose full of its stench, only realizing after he'd spat a moment that it smelled, like digestive fluids mixed with...

"Dirt?" Quickly reactivating his earth moving powers, Collin caused the glop on the ground to levitate and quickly harden, sharpening into a blade, and with a sickening noise equal to the cut that released the dirt from the Gonradian's stomach, the blade slid through the Noth'Xal's neck, shearing it's head clean off. It hit the ground with a sickening thud and Collin turned around, partly because of a warning from his goggles and partly to avoid throwing up. And it's a good thing he did, because the Gonradian was charging at him, ignoring the huge cut in its stomach.

Rag didn't have time to block or dodge the blow, but he prepared for it, which made it a little less painful and a little more manageable when the massive bug knocked him twenty feet across the room. He flipped over backwards and landed on his feet, still wanting to throw up but resisting the urge. He didn't have the luxury of a sick day at the moment.

"GAH!" He screamed as the bug spit a green globule of something at him. It hit the wall behind him and began corroding the metal instantly."Wonderful. Now it spits acid!"

"Collin!" Raven screamed as the Thanagarian's blow, deflected at the ground, still amassed enough strength to blow Raven near Collin. "Use the dirt and attack Wings. I'll finish off the bug."

Raven didn't tell him what had been going on, though, the well spring of anguish and fury building up in the back of her mind, the psychic cries of the ravaged souls of the aliens that these freaks, these monsters used to be. It had gotten mercifully quieter when Rag had slain the Noth'Xal beast, but now, this close to the bug, it was unbearable.

And it didn't help when she realized that Collin didn't stand a snowball's chance in a supernova against that Thanagarian.

Raven blasted the bug again, but it kept coming, no matter how much she injured it. It just kept getting closer and closer, and with each step more of the cries from its shattered soul poured into Raven's mind. "DIE ALREADY! JUST SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Raven bellowed this with rage unbecoming, and hurled a deadly bolt out, all the marks that Slade had made glowing on her body, the runes on her stomach and arms and back and legs, and the Mark of Scath on her forehead. The pulsated with her rage, and then she snapped, the Runes flying off and attaching themselves to the Gonradian. And in a burst of energy, the runes consumed him, burning the beasts body into demon power and tearing open a portal in the fabric of reality...

A four-eyed head appeared in the portal, a mask of rage on his face. Trigon. "HOW DARE YOU, FOOLISH MORTAL," it bellowed. "TODAY IS NOT YET THE DAY! MY POWER IS INCOMPLETE! YOU WILL..." Suddenly, Trigon saw Raven, and his face became one of confusion. "Daughter?"

"Dad!" Raven hissed, and blasted Trigon in the upper right eye, causing the ocular orb to slam shut and the demon lord to reel backwards "AARGH!"

And as the Eighth Devil fell away, the portal closed, and the charred remnants of the Gonradian fell to the earth. Raven had almost caused an interstellar apocalypse, but the voice in her head was finally silenced.

There were consequences, however. The runes blasted back from the portal, firmly engraving themselves again on Raven's body, sending surges of pain and tearing her clothing just as they had when Slade had first writ them there. "AAAUUGHH!" Raven screamed as the anguish assaulted her. She fell to her knees, half naked and exhausted, ready to pass out...

"RAE!" Ragnarök blurted as he dodged another swipe of the Thanagarian's massive blade. He turned and ran towards the fallen Titan in the corner of the room as fast as he could, even so aware that Victor Stone still lay helpless not thirty yards away. A distance that was as nothing to the dark devil that pursued the Titans...

But that evil angel seemed content to pursue only the awake Titans, as it charged at Raven and Ragnarök, swooping down at the wounded duo and preparing to eviscerate them.

"RAAANN!" it screamed.

"NO!" Collin threw rocks at it, but to no avail. He looked over at Raven, who seemed to be meditating.

"It seeks peace, but can only give war." She said. "To grant it peace is to destroy it."

Forming a massive ball of red energy in her hands, Raven hurled it with her last bit of strength, and detonated it with some of Collin's in front of the genetically violated hawk person, blasting it backwards and up into the sky.

"It lived." Raven said. "We are doomed. But at least my death will prevent my father from ever making it to Earth."

Collin closed his eyes, then opened them when he realized he needed sight to detect the Thanagarian. Still, he focused solely on his threat assessor. The Thanagarian had flown into the shadows of the ceiling of the room, invisible to the eye, and invisible to Rag's sensors...

Nothing...

Still nothing...

The tension mounted as Collin knew it could strike from any moment, anywhere. A small blip and Collin looked up at it. No. Not big enough... it was just the glomping thing's helmet!

**_BLIP_**

"THERE!" Collin blurted, looking in almost the exact opposite direction the helm had fallen. It would have worked if not for his Tamaranian technology, and he decided he'd give Kori a mustard cake whether it was her birthday or not when he got home. If he got home.

He leaped against the wall, the machines enhancing his agility and strength, and hurled his body towards the Thanagarian, twisting so that he would impact feet first and drive it back...

But the Thanagarian whipped out its mace, slamming the blunt weapon into Collin's back. He smashed against the wall, pain wracking his entire body even as he fell and knew he would never rise again. It was over.

"Collin! NO!" Raven gasped in horror. And she looked up, staring angrily, defiantly at the purveyor of her doom. "A fitting way to die. A demon who pursues light cut down by a dark angel of death."

With a flutter of its wings, the Thanagarian descended towards Raven and Ragnarök, it's massive sword drawn and ready to rend them in two.

"RAAAANN!" It screamed, flashing downwards at a speed matched by few, it's once majestic wings billowing out like a black bird of prey...

"'RAAANN' from THIS!" a familiar voice said, as a blue wave of sonic power slammed into the falling Thanagarian, blasting it head-over heels backwards.

Cyborg.

"And take these with you!" Cyborg's left arm transformed into a gatlin cannon and spat a stream of bullets into the Thanagarian, tearing it's flesh and piercing it's armor. "And don't forget..." Cyborg jumped into the air and his shoulders opened up, revealing twin missiles. **_"BOO-YAH!"_**

The missiles lanced out into the wounded Thanagarian, piercing into it's muscle and bone and exploding, the pathetic creatures life snuffed out in an instant. The fight was over.

"Victor!" Rag blurted from his immobile position on the ground. "Glad you woke up!"

* * *

**Author's Note**: _I had intended this to be the last chapter in this arc, but seeing as it's sixteen pages and about half of what I wanted to say, I decided to divide it in two. Anyways, I hope you enjoy. Also, note that this is my longest chapter. Ever. Yay me! I think...  
_


	6. Skool Daze: Class Dismissed

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Six: Delay of Game**

"Ooh!" Starfire complained to Robin. "I wish to know that our friends are alright now, please!" The mood in Gar's room was quiet, somber. Raven, Cyborg, and Collin had been MIA for over two hours.

"So do I, Star," said Robin.

Beast Boy leaned back in his chair and sighed. School was over for the day, and the entire facility was gearing up for the big Blur Ball game against the South Betelgeuse Devils tonight. It was a huge rivalry, and it dominated the school consciousness.

But Tim Drake, Koriand'r, and Garfield Logan weren't exactly students of the Institute; just pretenders. Still, Tim was scheduled to quarterback this game. He had to make a choice, and even though it was clear, he knew there would be consequences if he couldn't find their friends and get back before the game started.

"We gotta go look for them," Beast Boy reasoned, calmly, mostly due to exhaustion—physical and emotional.

"I'm hoping they show up," Robin said. "Or at least report."

"What if they're hurt?" Beast Boy wondered... "Or worse?"

Starfire winced at the thought. It couldn't be! They would show up, and they would have the data needed. She knew it.

**oooo**

The three missing Titans had been spending those two hours solving their own problems. Raven's exhaustion wouldn't go away, and she drifted in and out of sleep, even as Collin cursed himself for being dumb enough to leave the White Catalyst and the healing powers it contained in his dorm.

Meanwhile, Cyborg was busy with the door, trying everything he could think of to bring down the force field and open the security doors that Cerul had slammed shut. "If this doesn't work, I'm a gorilla's nephew," Cyborg sighed.

Cyborg connected two of the wires he had opened in the door's security panel (which had itself been protected by a force field that Cyborg had used a quarter of a power cell depleting, nearly overheating his sonic cannon in the process.) Thankfully, Cyborg remained unrelated to any simians, as the energy field vanished and the blast doors slid open.

"Alright, Cyborg," Collin cheered, leaving Raven where she was for the moment to go see if he could help Victor in any way.

"This thing is more complex than your armor and more alien than The Martian Manhunter." He manipulated a small lever and three of the four security doors slid away, leaving only the door they had originally used to enter the room... which Cyborg promptly smashed in, blasting it out of its frame with a well placed kick. "Get Raven and let's go."

"Cyborg," Collin gulped. "I can't carry her. I'm running on empty myself."

"Fine, I'll get her. Just get that data-cron to Robin and hope for your sake that it wasn't damaged in the fight."

Collin nodded, his armor vanishing in a dim light as he detransformed and removed the device from his pocket. "On my way."

Cyborg strode over to the unconscious Raven and knelt down to pick her up. But as he did, she groaned slightly and opened her eyes. "Victor," she said, clearly not completely awake yet.

"I have to get you to your room. You need to rest."

Raven sat up, her elongated hair falling against her now bare shoulders and surprising her. "No," she said. "I can walk. Your spirit itself gives me some strength."

"What!" Cyborg blurted.

"Nothing. I shouldn't have said that."

"No, I think I should know if you were eating my soul!" Cyborg barked, not sure if this was serious or not.

"I said I was sorry. It will have no side effects, especially on you. Now let's go."

Whatever relief Raven's earlier sarcasm had given him vanished from Cyborg as Raven continued to confound him. What had happened to tear her clothes like that anyway? He hadn't seen her like that since Slade had...

No... Slade or his master—they couldn't possibly be _here._

"Are you sure you're not feeling...?" Cyborg trailed off.

"Evil?" Raven asked pointedly. "No. But I'm grateful for your concern, Victor. I didn't mean to alarm you. Let me explain. All human souls give off an aura, something that psychics and empaths can feel. It's a natural byproduct of living, and yours is particularly powerful. Sometimes overbearing. I was so exhausted that my body just naturally started drawing strength from those... broadcasts. Normally it doesn't happen; normally I keep it under control."

Cyborg just stared at her, understanding. So... she had just used his excess power for a boost?

"It won't last long. What I really need is a good meal and rest. Come on."

"Wait. You're not running through the halls of this school like that, are you?" Cyborg said, indicating her tattered garments and once again gray skin.

Raven held up the hand where she wore the holographic ring. But instead of a ring, there was just a light burn scar around her ring finger. "I don't have much of a choice," she informed him. "We'll just have to be careful not to run into anyone. Most of the people will be at or on their way to the game by now anyway. I'm not strong enough to teleport."

"Oh, crud!" Cyborg realized, reactivating his hologram. "The game!"

**oooo**

Robin had just left Beast Boy's room when Collin jogged up to it holding the data-cron. "Robin!" He blurted. "Robin!" He was still in serious pain, but he would manage.

"As long as we're here, I'm Tim, Collin. Where have you been? Where are 'Rachel' and Victor?"

"We were attacked by Cerul and some genetically altered monsters, but we were able to get enough dirt... I mean evidence... to send both him and Blackfire to prison for centuries."

Robin looked at him expectantly, and then Collin remembered the rest of the question. "Vic and Rae are on their way. Me and 'Rachel' got messed up bad. She was still unconscious when I left, and my back is going to be hurting for a month."

"Unconscious!" Robin blurted.

"Something involving her father. Those demon symbols on her hurt her or something, I was too busy trying not to get killed by a genetically altered Thanagarian to notice the details."

"A Thanagarian? You mean that psycho experimented on SENTIENT beings!"

Collin nodded an affirmative. "And whatever he did to their minds was really creeping out Raven, too. I thought she was going to cry… I need to take an Advil and lie down. Or better yet, get to my dorm and get the White Catalyst."

Robin growled slightly. "The game starts soon, and Blackfire will be there; she's a cheerleader according to the yearbook. We have to make our move then, when she can't worm her way out of it."

"You point? Someone has to get that data ready, and I'm..." Collin yawned, and suddenly just **how** exhausted he was began to sink in. "I'm completely spent."

"Give me the data. Beast Boy is asleep on his chair. You can rest on his bed, but you don't have long."

"Why do we have to be there if Starfire could beat her sister single handedly before?"

"Did you catch Cerul?"

"No..."

"What if he decides to drop more of his experiments in that stadium?"

"I... never thought of that."

"I didn't expect you to. You've been through a lot." Even though Robin's words sounded concerned, there was a light hint of condensation below the surface. Collin would have hit Robin if he'd had the energy.

Instead, he just got really miffed. "Excuse me? You're the one who's been having Starfire go to classes and taking the time to practice an alien sport while me and Raven almost got stabbed, slashed, burned, and glomped to death by a psycho Hawkperson and its friends!"

"How was I supposed to know about those things?" Robin was defensive.

"You weren't. You're not being negligent." Collin bit out, handing Robin the data-cron and walking down the hall towards his room. "You're just lazy."

Tim glared at him, but said nothing.

"Robin—" a soft voice came from behind him. "I believe that in this instance that Collin may have a point. You have been rather overprotective of me since we got here..."

"I... er... Star..."

"Tim, I assure you that I'm fine. It is not as though I am pregnant or ill."

Tim goggled at that first suggestion. That would be silly, but... "What do you mean?"

"You are acting as though our classes are excuses to not work while we are here."

"We can't blow cover with the rest of the students. And..."

"To tell the truth, I think that in a way, you are using this experience as an opportunity for you and myself to act normal for a change. But Tim... Robin, we are _not_ normal. I am not an Earthling and never can be. I feel fine at the moment, and I wish that you would give me an assignment."

"Starfire..." Robin didn't say anything for what seemed like a long time. "I'm sorry."

He walked into the room, and placed the Data-cron on the computer terminal. "You can handle this part. Suddenly, the fact of Raven's predicament slammed into him, as did fact he almost lost three team members because he was busy living out the high school career he missed out on. "I've been such a fool, Kori. But not now. The coach can find a new quarterback. I'm going after Cerul. Once you get finished with the data, get to the stadium. I'll meet you there as soon as possible. Mandrag and your sister should be there by then."

Starfire nodded. "If Raven is as injured Ragnarök said, then I am the only one who can handled my sister should a fight break out."

With that, Robin left.

**oooo**

"Well," Smurgel sighed, "It was a good plan at least."

"Not really, but it was all we had." Newton commented.

Terpa Mandrag paced back and forth in front of the two students held at stun-point. "Well you two please tell me, what you, my star athlete and brightest pupil, were thinking by _STEALING A TRANSPORT SHIP_ and _TAKING IT TO A BACKWATER PLANET_!"

The massive woman's eye bulged slightly and her skin contracted.

Newton answered, "Headmistress Mandrag, we know what we did was wrong. But we believe we've uncovered a very important bit information."

"And what would that be?"

"That your so called star pupils in the junior class are frauds! They are heroes from another world here undercover on an assignment to do who knows what! They could be secret government spies from their world, sent to undermine this institution."

"Actually," the headmistress said, "They are here because they believe that one of the students here is wanted for crimes on their world."

"Oh? Really?" Newton said. "Well if that's all then..." Suddenly, Newton stopped dead in his sentence and just stared at the headmistress, realizing the weight of what she'd just said. "You've know the whole time?"

Headmistress Mandrag just stared stun-blades at him with her single overbearing eye. "You had suspicions, and rather than bringing them to the attention of the staff, you stole a transport and went on a joy ride halfway across the galaxy."

"Yeah," Smurgel sighed, "that's pretty much the size of it."

"How could one, let alone two students expect me to overlook this?"

"We'd hoped what we found out would persuade you to do so," Newton answered honestly. There was no point in lying now.

"Then your punishment will be WORSE than you can imagine."

_I can imagine quite a bit,_ thought Newton. "Will we be expelled?"

"No." Said Terpa Mandrag. "But by the time I'm done with you, you'll wish you had been!" She removed a folder from her desk and opened it up, and pulled out a small sheet. It was an advertisement for something.

"The school," she said, "is hosting a Vogon Poetry recital for the directors of our academic rivals, the Centauri Police Academy." She smirked wickedly. "Your punishment is to run the sound for this event."

Newton's eyes shot wide. Vogon poetry was widely regarded as the third worst in the Galaxy! "Headmistress Mandrag! He pleaded be reasonable!"

Smurgel, on the other hand started beating his hands against his head, hoping his brain would come loose and he'd die mercifully then and there.

**oooo**

Without a joule of energy left in his body (figuratively speaking) Collin stumbled in to his room. Then he remembered that the White Catalyst was sealed inside a puzzle box, locked in a chest the key to which was in Raven's room, and zipped up in a bag with the zipper turned inside out for security reasons.

So he just collapsed on his bed, forgoing the Advil altogether.

**oooo**

Cyborg finished scanning Raven, taking down notes. Her body seemed physically fine, though she was clearly depleted of energy. Her pulse and blood pressure were low, but still within acceptable margins. It seemed there really was nothing she needed but rest. He covered her with the sheets and laid a fresh cloak and hologram ring across the foot of the bed.

Cyborg nodded. His power cell would hold; that wasn't the problem. It was they way that Cerul had taken him down so easily, without even a fight. The alien criminal had just aimed a remote at him and pressed a button, and suddenly, Cyborg had been seeing dancing bears in tutus and flying hippoctopusses. Then he'd gone off line, and his body had spent the next ten minutes rerouting every system in his mechanical parts to get his body to work again. It had succeeded, but it had almost been too late; if he had awoken just thirty seconds later, that Thanagarian would have slain two of his friends, and probably him as well…

…

In a way, being here alone with Raven mad him think of romance. Not that he had any feelings for Raven... No, his mind was on another girl with gray skin, and the fling they'd shared for a few days.

It had all been a lie. All of it except for that—_except for that dance with Jinx. _

"Aw, what am I thinking. She's a villain! I'm a hero. That would never work out." With that, Cyborg grabbed the key to the box that contained the White Catalyst and made his way towards Collin's room; he figured that a certain other dimensional goof-off would need it.

Upon arriving, he discovered that Collin was completely passed out on his bed._ Vitals are Okay, _he observed. Bending down, he found the bag and used a magnet to open the reversed zipper, pulled the box out, unlocked it, and then smashed the puzzle box rather than solving it.

He walked over, and finding that Collin's armor wasn't activated. _Just wave the device in front of his face. Maybe that will work._

After about two minutes, he decided that it was an incredibly stupid idea, and instead did everything he could think of to wake the teen up. To no avail, unfortunately, as Collin was so tired that his dreams involved lots of sleeping too.

"Wonderful."

Then, an idea occurred to him. Cyborg opened the youth's hand and closed the white Catalyst within it. He'd get the idea whenever he woke up.

**oooo**

Robin, now with his standard superhero-garb equipped, burst into Cerul's office with an explosive disk, his staffed drawn and ready. Suddenly, the little blue man in question snapped up from his position beneath his desk, appearing startled.

"You!" he blurted. "... Who are you?" As he stood it became clear what he was doing: he was packing his things, and Robin had a feeling also about to burn all the evidence he could. He was jumping the proverbial ship.

"Leaving are you? After trying to hurt my friends," Robin said. "That annoys me." Robin snapped his staff into a ready position to accent is words.

"Oh, please," Cerul laughed, not seeming at all like the cold monster Robin had expected. "I didn't try and hurt your friends." His sincerity was staggering. Or at least it would have been if Robin hadn't seen it faked a hundred times before.

Robin narrowed his eyes, and then Cerul snapped out a pistol and shot Robin in the chest. "I tried to **_kill_** them," he said bitterly, and turned to run towards the back room.

Reeling from the shot, thankful he was wearing both standard body armor and Kevlar, Robin staggered to his feet, the wind knocked out of him. He rose quietly enough that Cerul didn't hear him get back up, and clicked out a Birdarang and flung it Cerul's direction, aiming to hit him in the leg.

But Cerul must have heard the click, because she dodged to the side at the last minute and fired a shot at Robin, which the Teen Wonder dodged away from. Robin's next Birdarang didn't miss, cutting into Cerul's empty hand and causing him to drop the gun so he could use that hand to clinch the injured one. Robin took the opportunity to dive on him, and began to pummel him with his gloved fists, which incidentally both concealed a pair of brass knuckles. (What? You thought he could beat Cinderblock in Apprentice part one with his bare hands? Be reasonable!)

Somehow, Cerul managed to get a leg between him and Robin, and used it to launch the much smaller person off of him. Then he got up, shrugging off his pain and making a mad dash for some high-tech apparatus near the back of the room.

"No!" Robin hurled a bola at him in an attempt to wrap him up, but Cerul turned into what looked like a teleportation unit at the last minute, and hit a button.

Even though the glancing blow the bola inflicted probably smarted, it didn't wrap him up, an Cerul disappeared in a stream of white radiance.

Robin swore and threw a phantom punch through the air. He blinked twice and then examined the machine. And it's a good thing he did, or otherwise he would never have seen the countdown timer. He couldn't make out the numbers, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that the fact all of them but the very last one was the same symbol to know what that meant.

Robin swore again and took off down the short hall and out of the door of Cerul's office. And still he was thrown to the ground as the equipment therein exploded, sending a blast of hot air into the corridor.

"Titans," Robin said, opening up a channel and not caring who monitored anymore. "Cerul got away. I underestimated him. He's probably getting out of this star system, but keep an eye out for him. I'm afraid he's willing to endanger innocent lives to protect his secret."

All he received, however, was static.

**oooo**

Unfortunately for Robin, three of the Titans were still asleep, which meant that the only people who got his message were Starfire (who had just finished working on the data, and agreeing it would completely destroy anything her sister came up with to get herself out of this, and was so lost in thought that replying didn't even occur to her) and Cyborg (who was already finding a seat at the stadium with a good vantage point.)

"I hear you," he said into his communicator, which must have looked weird to everyone else, considering that he was talking to his bare arm. "I'll keep an eye out for him."

Starfire, on the other hand, bought a ticket and slid into the stadium. The massive room was filled with over 50 million screaming fans, and Starfire could almost feel the surge of emotion. And there was a lot of it. So much so that they had to place psionic-blocking walls to prevent the game's emotions from being transmitted to the school's empaths, who typically didn't attend the games for fear of going insane.

"It certainly is loud in here," she said to herself as she scanned for an empty seat, really wishing that she were permitted to fly.

Then she saw her sister. Komand'r, plain as day, doing a cheer on the sidelines and looking as nervous as she'd ever seen Big Sister. Her rhythm was off, and she was sweating profusely. Tamaranians don't sweat, not in moderate heat, which meant that something was stressing her sister out big time.

And that would be an appropriate reaction if Blackfire new the contents of the folder Starfire held in her hand.

Starfire dropped the folder, inexorably drawn to Blackfire…

Slowly, carefully, not paying any attention to the people telling her to go find a seat, Starfire made her way to the cheerleaders…

And as they met, as they locked eyes... Oh..

The tension in the air was palpable. Sister and sister locked eyes. One pair was full of many things: anger, concern, confusion, love.

But Blackfire's eyes were full of only rage, a consuming vitriol that coursed through her body. Naught a word was spoken, even as the cheerleaders began their routine, dancing and cheering for the team. They glanced over at Camella Anderson, some of them urging her to quit gawking and start.

**oooo**

"Hey!" Lorelei said from atop the cheerleader pyramid. "It's that red-haired human hussy!"

"You're right!" Elizabeth squeed. "Zorf! They **_are_** like twins!"

"Or clones!'

Suddenly, Kory Anders glanced over and green shaft of light slammed into Lorelei's chest, knocking the entire pyramid of cheerleaders over. If there hadn't been 50 Million people, she might have stood out. But that little girl really needed to be taught a lesson.

And perhaps shooting the stupid freshman finally broke the tension enough for words between the two sisters, because suddenly, evenly, Blackfire spoke. "You shouldn't have come here."

Nothing. Not another word was spoken between them, and as people began to notice the confrontation, eyes—organic and electronic—turned to the two young women."I did not come here to fight you, Sister," said Starfire. "I came here to find answers."

"We are NOT sisters, Koriand'r!" Blackfire blurted. "I am not who you think I am!" As if irony wanted the truth to come out, Blackfire's eyes glowed, her contacts distorting the rays purple. "Blackfire of Tamaran is dead!"

Now, many heads were turned; a cat fight between a hot cheerleader and a hot upstart?

"She looks very much alive to me!" Starfire said, asserting herself by taking a step closer. "What is going on here, Big Sister?"

"Shut up! This doesn't concern you!" And then Blackfire snapped, blasting Kori with a massive Blackbolt, sending her reeling through into the air of the stadium. Starfire quickly regained control and righted herself. But now, because she forced the confrontation in spite of herself, she would have to see this through...

**oooo**

Cyborg's mouth fell open when he saw the fight begin. "What is that Tamaran thinking!" He blurted, not really caring whether anyone heard him. It's not like anybody would still believe her to be human now.

Vic decided to intervene, so he used his mechanical legs to jump to the end of the row of seats and started to run down from his high-up section. Then, something strange caught his machine eye; a tachyon discharge near the home end zone, accompanied by a burst of white light.

One that looked identical to the teleporter the JLU used to travel to and from the orbital Watchtower. He wasn't aware that that sort of technology was permitted, and he even thought he remembered reading somewhere in the school's hefty rules and regulations text that any form of energy transportation was illegal on school properties because of the risk of theft, boys beaming into the girl's locker rooms, and other such havoc that could be wrought with such a device.

Cyborg zoomed in on the figure that appeared in the burst with his electronic eye, and his suspicions were instantly confirmed: Cerul. And if he was in the stadium at a time like this, it could not be good news.

"Robin," he said into his communicator, again self-conscious of the fact he appeared to be talking into a bare arm. "I've spotted Cerul! He's here in the stadium."

After a brief surprised pause, Robin said, "Do whatever you can to make sure he doesn't kill anyone. And capturing him would be helpful too."

"I'm on it," the half machine New Yorker said. Cyborg leapt from his position in the upper section through the hologram of the field and down towards the real thing, feeling like the Incredible Hulk and thankful that he wasn't a Marvel Comics character...

**oooo**

Blackfire charged at Starfire, and the younger Tamaranian flew off, blasting upwards to escape her sister's rapidly growing form. Blackfire's eyes narrowed at this. "YOU COWARD!" she screamed in her native tongue, and flew all the faster.

Then, Starfire revealed that she was faking retreat, and blasted backwards very fast, changed directions and dived towards her sister.

**_KRAKOOOM!_**

The two collided in the air above the stadium, the shock wave disabling the hologram projectors and shattering all the windows in the box seats, spraying the occupants with shards of glass.

Starfire darted back and hurled Starbolts upwards towards her sister, who dodged them and returned with a pair of eye beams. Starfire dodged them with aerial jukes and blasted towards her sister, returning her attack with eye beams of her own.

Then she realized something: the energy attacks had were heading straight for the audience, and the moment's hesitation this realization caused gave Blackfire the opportunity to fly in close and slam her fist into Kori's face. And she kept pounding her, grunting with pure hate at every blow. Even as her head rattled back and forth under the force of Blackfire's punches, Starfire could see their previous energy attacks slamming into the ground, spectators scattering as chunks of the fortistone stadium exploded into the air, pelting the fans.

"STOP!" Starfire blasted her sister off, and wiped blood from her mouth and nose. Her head ached, and she felt like she'd be sick. "I just wish to talk! Why are you attacking me?"

"You _RUINED MY LIFE_!" Blackfire blurted, charging at Starfire again. But this time, Starfire prepared, deflecting her sister's punch and grabbing her by the arm. Starfire grunted, drawing on her alien strength. Then, she hurled her sister towards the ceiling of the stadium and followed it by a massive double-handed Starbolt, which slammed into Komand'r and sent her flying. She slammed into the ceiling, and plowed on through, with Kori following right after her. The two blazed out of the building, aided by the escaping air, into the hard vacuum of space.

Tamaranians are able to endure the harsh conditions of space for hours at a time, days if they remain in the proximity of a bright sun. And so, the battle continued on in silence, no medium to transfer the sound of their blows. Starfire hurled Starbolts and Blackfire, who destroyed them with her own Blackbolts and blasted at her sister, pistoning a fist back. She screamed, ejaculating the only air left in her lungs in a futile effort to give her rage a voice.

And despite the vacuum, she was heard...

**oooo**

The fact that they were no longer in the stadium meant that the massive psionic energy dampeners in the walls of that great sports arena no longer obstructed the fullness of Blackfire's rage, and soon, everyone in the school who could, felt it.

Including Raven.

The dark teen's violet eyes snapped open, and she sat up, shocked by the terrible hate radiating out from the mind she knew was Blackfire. Her fatigue had subsided, but only in part. Even so, there was no way she could sleep with the emotional noise she felt. What was causing Blackfire to behave this way? She had always been deceitful, hateful, and conniving. But never like this.

Raven, not bothering to cut her hair, removed a new leotard from her closet, and quickly discarded the tattered rags she'd passed out in. Seeing the cloak that she assumed Cyborg had placed on her bed, she wrapped it around her and secured it with another of her medallions, and then set off. She felt that she had to do something... Though she had no idea what.

**oooo**

About that same moment, but for different reasons, Collin woke up. Not because he'd felt Blackfire's unending fury, but because the Catalyst in his hand had indeed been healing him—just not at the rate Cyborg had hoped for.

Either way, Ragnarök was completely oblivious to this, as he didn't even notice the white sphere clutched in his hand. He dropped it as he got up, and instead grabbed that Advil he had forgone earlier and darted off towards the one place he figured people would be: the stadium.

**oooo**

Beast Boy snored, turned over, and continued sleeping.

**oooo**

The elevator that Robin was supposed to take back up to the stadium level was moving very slowly. He sighed. Bad enough to get stuck on such an urgent mission, but what was worse was that he was stuck in said elevator with a rather large reptilian fellow who had introduced himself as Jimbo.

"So, you do this 'Superhero thing a lot?" Jimbo asked.

"Yeah. It's become a full time job."

"Oh. Well, if you enjoy you're work, I guess. Right?"

"I don't do this because I enjoy it," Robin said. "I do it because it's right."

"Oh. Well. Good luck with that and all. I'd like to visit Earth someday, you know. Here it's a nice place."

Robin sweatdropped. Why did the guy who looked like a dinosaur have to be so flipping chatty?

"It is. I suppose. Well. There's a lot of war there. And disease. And prejudice. Uh... maybe it's not that great."

Jimbo shrugged, and exited the elevator as it came to his stop. Robin just sighed and pressed the 'close door' button.

**oooo**

Cyborg burst into a dead run. Cerul had started to flee when he saw him coming, looking vaguely surprised at first. Vic had seen him observe with almost sadistic glee as the And'r sisters had pummeled each other in he sky, and he hadn't taken his eyes off the battle until the two had blasted through the roof of the stadium, causing the emergency energy shield to activate to seal the vacuum suction.

"Stop!" Cyborg shouted, as if it would actually work. Cerul just turned and through a small capsule at the ground, which exploded, releasing a small rodent that resembled a vole, but turquoise and with red stripes and yellow, glowing eyes. "EUUGH!"

Cyborg jumped over the small creature, but not high enough, as the thing jumped up and grabbed onto his leg and began crawling up. When it reached his head, it dug its claws in, causing Cyborg to let out a yell.

They were running through fleeing crowds across the length of a Blur-Ball field, but somehow his scream still managed to be heard above the ambient noise. But the stares did little to hinder Cyborg, and in fact, when the people saw the little rodent they got out of the way, not wanting it to attack them.

Cyborg finally ripped the vole off, tearing strips of flesh with it. The organic side of his face began to bleed, even as he crushed the rat dead in his massive hand, this time leaping over the crowds and hoping he didn't land on anyone hard enough to cause serious injury.

The door was fast approaching, and Cyborg knew he wouldn't make it. He could no longer sprint because the crowds were so thick, and even though he could see Cerul's blue head, he couldn't fire at it and risk the bystanders. Vic swore as he skidded to a halt.

He'd let the bastich get away.

**oooo**

Or so he thought.

Even as the mad geneticist burst from the least occupied stadium exit, Robin cut his path off, reflexively planting his heel forcefully into Cerul's abdomen. He collapsed, even as Robin grabbed him by the lab coat and dragged him away from the fleeing crowds into a corner. After confirming that Cerul was unconscious, Robin bound him and hand foot and left him there; he had to see what the panic was about.

Robin entered the stadium and darted out onto the field where Cyborg—and now Ragnarök–stood helpless against the fleeing masses, with no form of crowd control.

Where was Booster Gold when you needed him?

As if millions of fleeing sports fans wasn't bad enough, school security was up in arms, trying to find out what the zorf was going on and fix it. Robin finally managed to weave his way up to Cyborg, as did Collin, who had launched himself over the crowds with a burst of Earth.

"What's going on?" Robin and Collin demanded in unison.

"Best I could tell," Vic began, "Blackfire saw Starfire, flipped out and went medieval on her."

"Starfire _confronted her_?" Robin asked incredulously.

"I don't know how it started, but I know how it ended. When Starfire saw all the damage the fight was doing, she threw her sister through the roof."

"Into space?" Robin blurted, worried now. He knew Starfire could somehow survive in space, but he didn't know to what extent that ability worked. Even Superman couldn't hold his breath forever.

As if to alleviate his worries, the roof suddenly exploded downward as two orange skinned figures blasted back in. Robin pulled a small monocular from his belt and observed the fight. Kori and Kom continued to trade blows in the air, bashing the ever-loving crap out of each other. And Blackfire was clearly winning, though her cheerleader outfit was partially frozen from sweat and humidity mixing with the cold of space, and Starfire's jeans and shirt similarly demolished. Which clearly revealed the extent to which both girls were banged up, cuts and bruises covering their tangelo-shaded bodies.

Then, in a sudden surge of fury—perhaps because she'd seen the Titans—Blackfire literally glowed with her anger, raising her hands into a hammer fist and smashing Kori. The younger warrior princess plummeted rapidly to the ground, but faster than Robin could remove the monocular, Blackfire was already on top of her, pounding her little sister's head into the ground with her fist.

"YOU RUINED MY LIFE! MY PLANS!" Blackfire screamed. "All I wanted was for you to NEVER come near me again, but you couldn't even do THAT!"

**_THWACK!_**

Blackfire hit her sister again. Starfire was clearly beaten, but Komand'r did not let up, and Robin was afraid that soon, those attacks were going to start splattering his teammates brains on the grass.

He charged forward, until aforementioned grass caught his eye—it was DYING. He looked up at Komand'r even as he felt the heat; her hand was raised, a Blackbolt glowing so brightly you'd think that name was a misnomer. And it was HOT. Starfire could take the heat, though it must have been agony, especially after being in the cold of space. Even as the grass withered and died, steam began to rise from the girl's frozen clothing; it couldn't be long before those caught fire.

Starfire stared into her sister's hate-filled eyes, her brain swimming but not lost yet. She knew she couldn't take much more of this. "I guess I can count "round four" as a loss, huh?" she joked towards her murderous sibling.

"Yes," Blackfire said gravely, "you can." She pulled her glowing fist back, even as her jet-black hair started to MELT...

No, not melt. The black dye she used to hide her most Tamaranian of traits was literally running off of her, soaking her outfit and burning her skin...

AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN CARE.

Starfire tried the only thing she could think of: "Sister... I'm sorry."

Blackfire blinked. "Sorry? SORRY? You think that just apologizing can make this right? I gave you exactly what you wanted, but THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, WAS IT?"

The fist snapped back as far as Blackfire would take it, and the it shot forward, plunging into Starfire's skull, causing her brain to melt…

Or, that's what would have happened if Blackfire's hand hadn't mysteriously stopped inches from Kori's head. Starfire looked at the fist and realized it was now coated in black energy! Which meant...

"I would turn that rage off if I were you," Raven warned. "Considering who my dad is, I think I can take some heat." Despite her big words, it was clear that either Raven was suffering, either from proximity to the heat, or from the emotions radiating from Blackfire's black heart.

"You want heat!" She yelled, turning and launching a massive blast of lavender-white power at Raven. The demi-demon did the best she could to block it with a shield of her dark power, but in her weakened, fatigued state, she just managed to reflect it towards the damaged ceiling.

"You witch!" Blackfire blurted, leaping off Starfire to attack Raven. But she was cut short as a tiny birdarang tore through her left arm, and another slammed into her upper abdomen.

"Those contain enough poison to disable Starfire for days," Robin said. "She helped me make them herself."

And the paralyzing venom went to work immediately, too, shutting down Blackfire's rage and her mind, as the Tamaranian's last bit of rage-fueled strength fizzled out. She collapsed, finally relieving Raven of the burden of those dark emotions.

Starfire looked over, clearly too injured to get up. "Is it over?"

"I think so, Star," Robin said. "Where the heck is Beast Boy?"

That didn't matter much in a minute; school security was already on their way over. Finally, the truth would come out. Justice would be done, though the heavens may fall. In this case, almost literally.

**Skool Daze Epilogue: Class Dismissed**

Later, in the office of the Headmistress, the six Titans gathered with Blackfire and two security officers. Cerul was there also, bound by Robin's restraints, while Blackfire was secured in a super-malleable programmable metal that closely resembled something produced by Wayne Tech.

"Well," said Terpa Mandrag as the last of the Titans, Beast Boy, approached the group. "The staff and I have reviewed your data, and I concede, that in light of the evidence, you are correct. 'Camella Anderson' is indeed Princess Blackfire of Tamaran."

"You knew she wasn't who she said she was all along," Robin said evenly, "but I am glad you are able to see past your pride and admit this mistake."

Mandrag contracted her eye, her species' way of expressing anger. "You would do well not to press your luck, Timothy, after what you did, and the damage you've caused this school, physical and otherwise. I should have you locked in the frozen rings of Oa for all eternity. All of you."

"I've already apologized for the damage to the school. I can have my team stay and help with the repairs, if you wish."

"No, certainly not," Mandrag replied. "When we're done here, I want you to leave this place. And if you ever come within twelve parsecs of this school again, I will have you summarily destroyed."

"Pleasant woman," remarked Raven to Starfire quietly. Though Collin had managed to find the White Catalyst, she still felt rather weak. She had exerted herself greatly, and came literally inches from dying a horrible death.

"What of Cerul?" Robin asked.

"He will be tried, obviously, and probably sentenced harshly," answered Mandrag.

Cerul smirked. "I beg… to differ."

Suddenly, Cerul transformed, his body splaying into some sort of monstrous brute, metallic arms protruding from his back. And then he lunged at Robin, sharp metallic spikes aimed at his chest…

Only to be rocked violently as a volley of live fire from the guards, his body forcefully, blasted back against the wall, leaking aquamarine blood from numerous holes as it slid to the ground. Starfire gasped, and Beast Boy and Collin shielded their eyes. Robin, Raven and Cyborg merely cringed.

"That was about the stupidest possible thing he could have done." Collin observed.

"No," said Robin, pointing at the corpse. Which was _dissolving_. "It looks like Cerul gets the last laugh after all."

"Another clone," Blackfire said bitterly. Which meant that while the Titans had been in here questioning Komand'r and 'Cerul' the real mad geneticist had got away.

"The Blackfire we confronted on Earth was a clone as well," Starfire accused.

"Yes." Blackfire lowered her head, her red hair falling over her face.

"But why?" Collin asked. "Why did you send those things there to kill us if you were trying to enroll in this school?"

This seemed to anger Blackfire. "You still don't know? I sent those things there because I _wanted _you all to think I was dead! I just wanted to start over, away from you. Away from my zorfing past." She looked at Starfire, her earlier fury now a smoldering hate.

"Then why did you send Vordlaxian Wyrms to kill us?" Robin demanded.

"Those Loblaxdons were genetically altered to be MORE DOCILE, you zorfing idiot! Didn't you think it was the least bit odd that you didn't even start to be digested, as long as you were in them?"

The earth-born Titan just shrugged, but Starfire nodded. "I had just assumed they had slow metabolisms."

"Try non-existent ones." Blackfire looked up.

"I say we glomp her till she begs for death and let her rot in jail," this violent suggestion, of course, came from Ragnarök.

"No," said Robin. "There's nothing more I'd like to do right now than make her suffer for what she did to Kori. But we're the heroes. We should be better than that."

"In this case," Starfire said softly as the Titan were walking out the door, "it is almost as though we were the villains." Or, at least that was they way Blackfire's words mad her feel.

And as they left, Blackfire only glared at them. "I will **_NEVER _**forgive you, Koriand'r. Never." Heard only by Headmistress Mandrag, her voice was low and hateful… and somewhere, deep within…

_Sad_.

**oooo**

Two nights later, back in their tower, the Teen Titans reflected on their journey, learned of the humiliation Smurgel and Newton had given the Titans East, and found that public opinion of presidential candidate Sue Dinby had swung dramatically in her favor for currently unknown reasons. That didn't matter much at the moment, because Cyborg had just walked into Ops with the results to the Wyrm DNA tests.

"Blackfire was telling the truth. They _have_ had their metabolisms genetically removed. They couldn't have eaten us even if we were freshly cooled lava."

"Then, ultimately," Starfire lamented, "all we did was disrupt my sister's chance at a legitimate life. Even if it was gained illegitimately."

"Hm? In away, we really lived up to our motto," observed Collin.

"'Truth, Justice, Pizza'?" asked Raven slightly mockingly.

"Well," Collin said, "Two thirds of it. The truth came out, and justice was done."

"Cerul got away," reminded Robin, drawing somber nods from the Titans.

"Hey, guys," Beast Boy said, carrying Silkie over to the couch with him, petting the little larva. "One thing I really don't get: If Blackfire was trying to start a new life, then why did she contact Ryand'r and tell him where Starfire was in the first place."

All the Titans arched their eyebrow, and one by one, all of them admitted they had no answer.

**oooo**

Deep within the bowels of a massive starship, a blue skinned figure in a lab coat smiled, wildly impressed with his own ingenuity and simultaneously despising his rotten luck. "That went beautifully_—everything_ according to plan**_… IF NOT FOR THAT BLASTED HUMAN!" _**

Cursing, he and kicked his Vape-o-matic garbage can across the room. "That zorfing spikey-haired little 'super-hero' and his friends." He walked over to his latest… _project._ He'd managed to save it, at least. And now that he had an object to exact vengeance on, he figured this little guy would be useful…

_Oooh… would it ever be useful!_

_

* * *

_**Author's Note**: _And so ends my new longest chapter to date, as well as the _Skool Daze_ arc. This took a while to write. So much of it felt very off while writing it, and even now it still isn__'t quite what I had hoped it would be. Maybe it's just me being a perfectionist, though. I don't know. Tell me what y'all think, ya hear?_

_I'll start the _God Complex_ arc sometime next week, I suppose. More Oz, a psycho murderer, and the Spectre! Yay, Jim Corrigan!_


	7. God Complex: Long Night

**Teen Titans in Colors**

**God Complex: A Very Long Night**

The stranger named Oz sat on the bed. The very elaborate, dark, almost Gothic bed...

Raven's bed. The fact that this guy was in Raven's room is creepy, yes? I thought so. Anyways, he was sitting on Raven's bed, writing in a spiral bound notebook and occasionally petting Silkie, Starfire's pet giant moth larva.

He had observed that Tara, oddly enough, was no longer stone—though she had been in this world—and that she had been coming by every other day to give the insect a few—very few—zorkaberries so that he stayed alive but did not become a giant again.

Oz had done a good job of keeping his presence hidden from the girl, but she had never been the most adept at assessing threats if he knew her half as well as he thought he did.

Then again, apprenticeship to an assassin the caliber of 'Slade' was something he hadn't ever known Tara to have, though he had observed it by means of technology. Either way, it was clear that this was not the same dimension he had observed that day; Ragnarök was the wild card here, as was Slade's son Grant and Delirium's destruction of Tamaran. They had changed things, and that made this world different than any already known. And he was keeping this all in his notebook.

Well, notebook_s_, plural, as he had several more in the place he was staying, all of them full. The oddest thing that had diverged in this reality so far was that Sue Dinby, wife of Ralph Dinby, aka Elongated Man of the JLU, was running for president. Oz assumed some inter-universal karma was at work there.

He closed the notebook and lay back on the bed, scratching Silkie's belly as he contemplated what his next move should be. Were these guys ready? They had had it so much easier so far than his team. No Trigon in early 'Year Two', no psychopaths destroying half the town. As far as he could tell, nobody had even DIED in any of the Titans' battles so far, with the exception of the now-resurrected Slade, and Blackfire, who's apparent return they had left the world to investigate. Or so went the story according to the spying that Oz had done at STAR Labs and what he'd overheard from the Titans East.

Well, a bunch of Tamaranians had bit the metaphorical dust, or big one if you prefer, when Delirium destroyed the planet, but other than that, Jump City, California was a much nicer place than the town Oz was used to.

Gradually as he sat and contemplated this, a low rumble barely caught his attention. Then it started to grow into a rather large rumble, and the tower around him began to shake. Oz darted out of Raven's room and through the convoluted corridors to Ops, where he just saw the orange tail of what looked like a giant manta ray arc over top the tower, where the rumbling changed into a dull vibration that gradually grew louder as if to indicate landing... The Titans were back.  
"Oh... bugger," Oz said.

**oooo**

Starfire and Robin were the only two Titans left awake after Cyborg had confirmed that the Wyrms were indeed more docile. Robin typically stayed up late, a side effect of being Batman's ward.

Starfire, on the other hand, simply couldn't sleep. She couldn't seem to shake the feeling she'd done something horrible to her sister, and Robin stayed with her, trying to convince her she wasn't thinking clearly, or at least comfort her in some way. "Blackfire was a criminal. She didn't earn or deserve the life at the Institute."

"Yes," said Kori sadly. "But I cannot help but think that perhaps she would have done great things had she become a Galaxy Officer."

Robin sighed. Star just wouldn't see reason. She was too emotional about it. "Maybe you'll feel better once we get some sleep. You took quite a beating and I'm sure you're exhausted."

Starfire nodded, and then smiled at Robin. "Thank you," she said.

Robin gulped. "For.. what?"

"For trying to help me. For staying up with me... for being my friend." Starfire leaned forward and kissed Robin on the forehead, causing him to sweatdrop.

Robin laughed nervously, and then, took of his mask. He knew his face must have turned red, and he felt like his sweat was about to boil into steam. "It's really no problem, Star." He meant it.

"Thank you anyway, really."

He considered saying he would do it for anyone on the team, but then realized the only one he'd do it for besides Starfire was Raven, and that even then he'd be reluctant. So he just said nothing but, "Uh... You're welcome."

**oooo**

Kori leaned back, stroking Silkie. The little larva had seemed agitated, and he kept looking around, as if some unseen danger was lurking somewhere. Or maybe it was just Starfire's imagination.

Robin picked up the remote, oddly enough in the right place, and turned on the TV. Thanks to Batman, (who Robin had always, when asked how Batman funded his war on crime, said that he had powerful financial backing)the Titans had access to pretty much any news channel in the world, and several alien ones that the JLU routed to Earth, so Robin spent many a night watching the news around the world. It was best to be informed, he always said. Starfire noticed that his free hand was on the sofa, on the coushion in between them, and, barely knowing what she was doing, she reached out and took his hand in hers.

Robin glanced over, and started to recoil. But Starfire held, so he stopped resisting. Well, Starfire thought, the night wasn't a total loss. Not a word was spoken as the two watched the TV. Starfire still felt bad about the ordeal with her sister... but with her and Robin here together, it would all be alright. She was sure of it.

**oooo**

From a tiny, dark, cramped, uncomfortable—

"I get the idea already," Oz interrupted with a sharp whisper, shifting on his bum.

—closet, the stranger watched, using a tiny night vision lens to see his notebook. He did not dictate. No, Robin would hear something if he did. He had been locked in the closet for seven hours, using every trick he could think of to fool Cyborg's sensors, Beast Boy's nose, and Raven's telepathy, and since they were finally asleep, only the two lovebirds remained.

'_Well, here's another difference, _Oz wrote. _Starfire and Robin are in year three of the Teen Titans and are just now starting to take their relationship anywhere.' _Well, that wasn't the most professional way to take notes, but it was how he felt.

'_Robin seems rather oblivious to her affections, and was outright embarrassed when she kissed him. This indicates that this Starfire has never been pregnant. Well, thank God for the small blessings of this more innocent world.'_

He new that unless the laws of genetics had been repealed, any attempt at Koriand'r and Tim to have a child together would end in disaster.

Oz shifted again, trying not to make any excessive noise... He didn't know how much longer it would be before the last of the Titans would go to bed, but it troubled him to remember that he had Tim pull all-nighters before. Then again, without any cases at the moment, he had no reason to stay up...

Though—Oz's train of thought was interrupted by a yawn, and by making sure it was silent as possible. _I'm getting quite sleepy myself,_ he thought...

Suddenly, Oz snapped awake and realized he had dozed off. He looked at his watch and realized that two hours had passed. "Bugger!" he blurted, then realized where he was and glanced out... only to see that the Robin and Starfire were gone. And he saw what had awakened him too: a flashing light on the map of Jump City that was displayed on the TV.

They had been called out in the middle of the night. And as bad as such things tended to be, it was Oz's only chance to get out of the tower undetected... And so, he did.

**oooo -earlier- oooo**

He was waiting on her to come near. And it was obvious what he wanted. Blood. Maybe **_worse_**. He'd been stalking her since she'd left the convenience store.

The big burly man with the knife. He was one of them. Those worthless people that could only kill and steal and destroy. They all deserved death. And there was one who would bring that death, finally.

He was wearing a baby blue tunic, with massive sleeves and a belt of violet And it bore his crest—the hourglass. After all, it was only a matter of time before judgment struck, and he was the one who delivered it.

She drew near the evil man, and he started to move. And so it was time for the avenger to make his.

The girl... it saddened him. She couldn't have been older than twelve. And the man had to be close to forty. A murderer, undoubtedly, possibly a pedophile. How could anyone have such evil in their hearts?

No matter. They would fall before him, the moonlight bearing witness that he was doing his duty. Justice would reign in this lawless city, though why he had been drawn to it specifically was lost on him.

_This isn't right, _the old voice told him. It lied. It was his duty to rid the world of evil! He would...

The evil man approached the young girl and drew a knife. Even far above the scene as the robed man was, he could hear the young girl gasp. The evil man licked his lips in a sickening declaration of his own perversion, and the girl picked up her pace. So did the evil man. She broke into a jog, and so did he.

...she sprinted. He followed, though his gait was impaired, probably by drugs or alcohol. Or the dark desires weighing down his heart...

The girl turned into an alley... but it was a dead end. And the evil man that pursued her soon followed, closing in.

"Don't be scared, little girl," he said, though the look on his face said otherwise. "I won't be too rough with you. Any money in that nice little purse of yours?"

"Stay away from me!" the girl warned. Or pleaded, it was hard to tell.

"Oh, the big girl wants to talk big?" The evil man mocked. His speech was slightly slurred, but he wasn't wasted. He knew full well what he was doing.

It was time for the robed man to act. Just as the girl raised her hands, just as the evil man began to lunge, he descended on the monster with a vengeance, driving his foot into the man's face and following up with a kick to the groin, and a jab to the neck. The little girl gasped behind him at her rescuer.

"What the..." the evil man blurted, recovering. He began cursing at his attacker, and demanded to know who it was...

The attacker told him.

"My name?" he said in a low growl. "My name is Emmanuel. And God has sent me to punish the wicked."

The evil man guffawed. They always guffawed. The wicked laughed in the face of God's vengeance. His wrath amused them. They would have to be punished. "You mock me, chosen by the Staff of Judgment to slay the wicked? Then you die."

And then, the spikey-haired young man—he couldn't have been much older than twenty, if that old—aimed the metal rod he'd been carrying, the head of which flared up. It had words on it, but they were faded, the sticker on which the were writ having been torn or burned off, and giving the appearance of an inscription in some arcane language...

But the S.T.A.R. Labs symbol was clearly visible, twin stars dawning over a new world. All that was lost to the three gathered, as Emmanuel pulled the firing mechanism, and a bolt of yellow energy lashed out from the Staff, slamming into the evil man's left shoulder and blowing his arm clean off.

Then a second bolt struck him in the knee, which exploded into charred bone and red vapour. Then a third bold struck him dead center of the chest as he fell, the entire remnats of his body exploding into ash and vapour...

"It is done," said Emmanuel.

He turned around and saw the girl cowering behind him against the ally. "Omigosh!" She blurted. "You psycho! You killed him! You just murdered him!"

Emmanuel was aghast. Did this girl just...? "Do you not know what that man was going to do to you, girl?" he blurted.

She nodded, "Yes, and I can take care of MYSELF!" As she said this, she raised both hands, and fire ignited around her, and blasted forth from her hands towards Emmanuel.

But the self-proclaimed dealer of judgment held out the Staff and twirled it rapidly, blocking all the fire. He was no longer shocked, just annoyed. "You can control the elements." It was more statement than question. "Fire."

"Well, yeah. They don't call me Firebrand for no reason! And I don't go killing people like a psychopath!" The girl started to run away...

But she had offended him! God's agent of Judgment! That would not stand.

_You're a friggin' retard, the Old Voice told him._

He ignored it. It was really just the demon Severus Snape trying to convince him to abandon his mission. He would show the forces of hell what he was made of. The Staff had come to him!

_Severus Snape is a Harry Potter character, moron._

"Harry Potter is the chief of all demons," Emmanuel told his Old Voice.

_You used to say that about Wart from Mario II. And Slimer the ghost before that._

"You will not fool me, Snape!" Emmanuel cried.

He leapt up the fire escape, and once again onto the roof of the building, and saw the girl running south down the sidewalk, parallel to the bay. He ran, calling upon his heavenly powers to get him from building to building as he outran th girl, and jumped from the rooftop, falling down and landing in front of her.

"You have offended me." Emmanuel said. He whipped out his staff and slammed the bottom into the girl's face.

_Why do you have to do this? She cant be older than twelve!" _the Old Voice protested.

Emmanuel let loose another beam, that slammed into the girl. And in a flash of light, only ashes remained.

_I hate you, monster,_ the Old Voice said.

"The only monsters are those I _say_ are monsters," Emmanuel reminded. And with that... he left.

**oooo**

And so, this tragedy brings us back to the present, where the Titans were called into by the police to investigate the apparent metahuman double homicide.

It was bad, at least as bad as the Titans had seen so far. In one spot, there was an arm and a leg disembodied, the fingerprints of which identified it as a Marshal Grabner, an ex-convict who had been released on parole after a tragic child molestation case two years earlier.

"Ugh, it's cold out here," Beast Boy complained. "I'm freezing my tail off!" He had transformed into a fox to keep warm, and therefore literally had a tail.

"It's October," Raven sighed. "What did you expect? We have more important things to worry about anyway."

"Yeah, man," Cyborg admonished, "Star and Robin didn't even get any sleep. At least we got some."

Collin zipped up his jacket. "Was it really necessary to have all of us out here? I mean what good am I at detective work? Do I _look_ like a Gary Stu?"

The Titans shot Ragnarök a glance.

"Don't answer that," Collin said.

Robin looked up from the instruments he was using. "Energy weapon," he determined. "High yield, whatever it was."

"You mean this was a tech kill, not a metahuman kill?" Cyborg asked.

"Right. Otherwise, I got nothing. Who would want to kill an ex con who had ratted nobody out? He just got out today, and it wasn't very well known." Robin sighed. Perhaps Bruce could help him out. "Any suggestions?" he asked of his team.

"His victim, perhaps," Raven offered.

"You think he had reverted to his old ways..?" Robin reasoned.

"That would explain this," Cyborg said, picking up a knife that had been half obscured by foliage growing through the cracks in between building and pavement.

"Point taken," Robin sighed. Another rousing success of reform from the justice system, he thought sarcastically.

Starfire yawned; she had been a bit distant the whole time. She wasn't much of a detective, possessing no special sensory powers and having no training. But she did have a rather good idea. "Raven, why not try and use your psychic powers to get an emotional reading from the remains?"

"You mean like residual empathic power?" Raven asked.

"Um, yeah, what she said," Beast Boy replied.

"It could work." Raven knelt over the ashes. Knowing where they had come from freaked her out, but it came with the job. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinth..."

Suddenly her minds was filled with images: a young girl... running—he was stalking her.. and then, someone... someone from the shadows descending like... The Batman? No. He wore a light blue tunic, and his hair was a massive mess of spikes, almost Super Saiyan caliber. And... His symbol, on his chest. Not a bat...

"An hourglass," Raven said as she came out of the momentary trance.

"What?" Robin asked her.

"I saw an hourglass. It was the last thing before pain filled his mind. Whoever did this was human, but he wore an hourglass emblem across his chest."

"Like an Hourman?" Collin asked.

"Hourman was a Justice Society member," Robin warned. "And a hero, not a murderer."

"Just a thought."

"What about the other one?" Starfire asked, hovering over to the other pile of ashes.

"It's worth a shot," Cyborg said.

Reluctantly, Raven again knelt in the human ashes, these scattered more by the light chilly breeze due to not being sequestered in the safety of the alley. And it washed over her again, the feeling of dread as the man with the hourglass on his chest approached, and the fear as he hit her, and aimed the metal staff at her...

Then nothing. No sudden pain, no cry of horror... her mental residue just ended like a VCR tape breaking...

"Odd." Raven said. By this time the rest of the Titans and several patrol officers had gather around them. "This one went painlessly. But it was the same guy."

"Besides an hourglass on his chest, is there anything unusual about this guy?" one of the cops asked.

Raven nodded. "He is dressed in a big tunic, lavender or light blue. And his hair is wild."

"How wild?" Beast Boy asked, smoothing back his own.

"Think Super Saiyan level two," Raven said. "Yes, I know Dragon Ball Z."

Several of the Titans goggled at her.

"I didn't say I LIKED it Raven shot back defensively."

"Titans, enough. We have to get to work. It's three now. We search till five, then rest. This guy will stick out like a sore thumb in broad daylight, so I'm guessing he operates only at night."

"Sort of like Batman." Cyborg said.

"Nothing like Batman," Robin shot back. "Batman isn't a murderer." Robin knew he probably overreacted, but he had been severely defensive of Bruce lately. Mostly because of him reading stupid superhero forums claiming they had proof that Bruce Wayne was the mysterious super villain Slade.

"Right. Well, Rob. How should we split up?" inquired Cyborg.

"You and Collin take the T-Car and search the South End. Beast Boy, become the warmest fish you can think of and search the bay. He may have meta human abilities or diving gear, and we don't know how old these murders are."

"What about us," Starfire asked, indicating her and Raven.

"Raven, you search the Tobias-Westron district," Robin said. "Starfire, take me back to the island, and then head down town. I'll search the North Side on the R-Cycle."

All the Titans nodded in confirmation of their orders. Starfire wrapped her arms around Robin from behind.

"Titans, GO."

**oooo**

And far away, in another district of the city, an older, poor district, where chaos and evil were tolerated, even considered commonplace, another shadow, a creature of the night loomed. But whereas one served his own madness only, this one truly served the Light.

He watched, even as the man made his way into the apartment, looming over, sensing the evil that was about to be purveyed...

"Hey, ho," he said, looming over the woman on her bed. His voice was coarse and disrespectful. "You gonna give me whut I want, now," he whispered, as she awoke, slamming his filthy hand over her mouth before she could scream. "You gonna give me whut I want, and you not gonna scream about nothing, or I slit your throat open..."

The woman nodded, terror in her eyes, but behind it, defiance. She was not an evil soul. She did not deserve this...

The man started to pull at her gown, and at that moment, the woman reacted. Flipping over and kicking him in the head, she reached under her pillow, and removed...

A revolver.

And even though his head had to be ringing from that kick, he saw the gun coming and slashed at the woman's hands, cutting into them and causing her to drop the gun.

Then she screamed, and in a selfish rage, the man drove his knife into her stomach, pulling it out and stabbing her again. Her gown was now sticky with blood, and her yells were even louder...

Suddenly, out of the shadows above her bed, eyes appeared. Followed by a body, sheer white and luminescent, wrapped in a green cloak.

The Spirit of Vengeance—the **_REAL _**one. The Voice of the Almighty had lead him here, and he now knew why.

Of course, the thug didn't know that, he just knew a ghost was attacking him, or something... So he retaliated in kind, jabbing his bloody knife at the apparition in front of him.

Th phantom just blocked it with an open palm, and the knife melted, on contact, the metal exploding back onto the thug's face, searing it. He screamed.

The woman in her bed continued to whimper.

He now punched at the spirit, his knife broken. But the phantom caught his hand. Pain shot up the thug's arm, as the power of the phantom shot into it, boiling the blood and turning the flesh to stone... and then the phantom ripped it off, ashes spewing from the empty socket.

"What are you?" The thug demanded, staggering backwards. "You a demon or something."

The phantom just shook his head, and grabbed the villain by the shirt, dragging him close and staring into his eyes. And he caught fire. Not normal fire, but a white fire, a fire of purification... It consumed his whole body, his overheated bones bursting into ashes as his flesh ignited...

When it was over, only a pile of charred human matter and a knife handle remained.

He turned to the woman, bleeding and cowering in her bed, praying for protection, praying not to die, for this demon to vanish. The phantom was no demon. He just extended his hand, and spoke. "Heal," he said. Suddenly, the wounds, even the blood drawn vanished "Sleep, and forget." And with that, the phantom faded. There was still some great evil in this city. He had to find it. And as he faded, the woman fell into pleasant dreams, her wounds and fear vanished. One would-be victim saved. But so many more still in danger of the ever-growing evil of the world.

**oooo**

It was at four-thirty in the morning when the exhausted Titans finally got a lead on the case. A Rosetta Parkinson had awoken in the middle of the night after a disturbing nightmare to find a pile of ashes that had once been a human being on her floor.

She knew this, because the top half of the skull was still intact and rested neatly atop the pile.

"And you're sure you heard _nothing, _unusual?" Robin asked the woman, an middle-aged African-American seamstress (that looked ten years younger than she was) who had fled the slums of the east coast twenty odd years earlier, only to end up in slums on the west coast. Still, she didn't complain. She had her life, and her daughter...

"No, sir." she replied. "Though I did have an awful dream before I woke up."

"What kind of dream?" Robin asked her.

"I don't really remember." She admitted.

Robin turned to Raven. They were the only Titans there, at the moment, though. Ragnarök was outside seeing if he could spot their killer trying to flee the scene, and the other three were still patrolling town.

"Raven," he said, "see what you can learn here. The energy readings I'm getting don't match what I found at the other two crime scenes."

Raven nodded and picked up a handful of the ash. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinth.."

**_BOOM! _**

A flash of light blasted Raven back against the wall, and power surged through her. Holy energy; the kind that burned half demons. Raven felt weakened and looked at her hand, and wished she hadn't, as there was a massive circular burn covering the palm.

"Raven! Are you Okay?" Robin blurted.

"I..." She looked at her hand again, and she knew _exactly _who was in Jump City. "No, I'm not."

"What?"

"Robin... HE, is here..."

"Who?"

Raven inhaled. "The Spectre."

* * *

**Author's Note**: The Spectre is one of DC comics' oldest major characters. For more information, look him up on Wikipedia or search MoviePoopShoot's "Comics 101" database for more details. 


	8. God Complex: Ozymandias

**Author's Note: In this chapter, I refer to an event involving Spectre and Superman which happened in the October 2005 issue of Action Comics on Halloween. Obviously, because it's not Halloween yet in this story, it can't have happened already, so I refer to it as a past event. Satanus, Spectre, and Superman(obviously) are all owned by DC Comics, as is the story the Titans recall. Then again, so are the Titans, Jump City, and the T-Tower.**

Oz is a borrowed character created by Eric Mersereau and his sister; Ragnarök and Emmanuel are mine.

* * *

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Eight**

"WHAT?" Robin stammered. From the expression on his face, you'd think he had just discovered that Batman was Charles Manson...

"The Spectre is in Jump City..."

Robin tried to calm down, but he still did not like where this was going. "The SPECTRE is here? As in THE Spectre!" Robin blinked twice. "As in the one who crushed the demon Satanus in his _bare hand _last Halloween?"

Raven nodded. "That's the one."

Robin swore.

"Are you absolutely certain?" Robin asked, his voice coming under control slightly.

Raven stood, allowing her cloak to fall over her shoulders and conceal most of her body. Then she stuck her hand out and showed Robin the palm. "I'm sure. This wound will leave a scar that will never go away. That man was killed with holy energy, and it didn't react well with my demon half." The wound was nasty, a second degree burn that covered most of her palm.

"I don't suppose you could tell what he wants here?" Robin asked, looking at the ground. "Why is he here. This is my town—our town!"

"What does the Spectre always want?" Raven asked, but then answered herself. "Justice. Vengeance."

"He wouldn't come all the way out here if not for something major. You don't think the hourglass guy is connected to this?"

"It's possible, but it seems too... trivial." Raven floated over to Mrs. Parkinson and the pile of ash. "I think we're done here," she told the woman.

Robin nodded. They'd said too much as it was. "Mrs. Parkinson," he said. "Please don't tell anyone what we said here. I'm afraid if word gets out, there might be needless panic."

"Is there a _reason t_o panic?" the woman asked him as he followed Raven out the window."'Cause it sure sounds like there is?" When Robin didn't answer a moment, she asked again. "_Is _there?"

"I don't know yet," Robin simply said. An empty, sinking feeling was twisting itself around in his gut. If the Spectre was here... what if it was after Raven?

**oooo**

Rest did not come at 5:00 in the morning as Robin had promised, because, being human, he could not possibly have foreseen the Spectre's presence in Jump City.

He called all the Titans to break off their searches and return to the tower. The byline that the Titans had fed the cops—that the killing in the Parkinson apartment was the work of the same man with the hourglass as the others—didn't raise any questions. It made sense enough, and Robin feared the town would panic if the knew the Spectre was in Jump City.

After all the Titans had gathered in ops, the began the discussion.

"So," Beast Boy asked, "who is the Spectre again?"

Robin rubbed his head in disgust. "Remember last Halloween, when Metropolis was completely overrun by ghosts? They were there because the Spectre was there—one of the Spectre's enemies summoned them for protection, which was working until Superman intervened."

"If Superman beat him, then why don't we call him?" Cyborg asked.

"Superman didn't _beat_ the Spectre. You don't _beat _the Spectre. Superman took down the demon's defenses somehow, and Spectre killed it. Only then did he leave."

"You think he's going to do something like that _here_." Ragnarök stated more than asked.. "You think he's coming after Raven?"

Robin gasped. "I never said that."

"If he does, then God help me," Raven sighed. "Wow, there's an irony."

"In more ways than one," Robin said. "Spectre claims to be literally the Spirit of God's Vengeance. If half the thing's I've read are true, then I don't doubt it."

"If he's a good guy then what's the problem?" Collin asked.

"What if we have a repeat of that Metropolis incident? Or what if you're right and he's after Raven for being half demon? And make no mistake, if the populace finds out he's here, the town _will_ panic."

"Last year in Metropolis," Raven began, "When Satanus tried to protect himself with the souls of innocent people, he tore open a portal to the realm of the dead, and malevolent ghosts began attacking Metropolis. Something like that _could _happen here."

Beast Boy stared at Raven dumbfounded, and then his eyes betrayed great shock. "You mean THAT was all because of HIM... and HE is in Jump City now?" He obviously remembered something about it now.

Raven nodded. "Not only is he here, but we also have this crazy hourglass man apparently playing Spectre's game. And we won't know which kills are which until we get to the crime scene."

"Raven! Do not think like that, please," Starfire complained, hovering in from the kitchen with a plate of zorkaberry pancakes. "You suggest that more murders will take place before we capture this monster."

"It's almost a certainly in this type of case," Raven said sadly, even as the sweet smell of the pancakes hit her nostrils. She realized how hungry she was.

"She's right." Said Robin, "But the odds of the kills happening during the daytime are low. We should get some sleep now, and start again tonight."

**oooo**

Jim Corrigan was a good man.

Sure, he wasn't perfect. Nobody is. But in general, he was an all around nice guy. He had a loving fiancee who he also loved dearly. He had a good job as a police officer. He went to church as often as he could, and payed his tithes and taxes. He did charity work every now and then, though his job constricted him a lot.

For you see, Jim was also a _good cop_. And that's what got him in trouble.

Because he was a good cop in a town where good cops were rare, where corruption was the order of the day. And it eventually proved to be his downfall. A false tip one night led him right into a trap. He was beaten senseless and stuffed into a barrel, then tossed over a pier to drown. And so Jim Corrigan died.

But it didn't last very long, because as he slid towards the afterlife, a Voice called to him, and told him he had to go back. For the Spirit of Vengeance was, for the first time in millenia, without a human host, and it needed one to make judgments. And so, the Voice spoke and bonded Jim Corrigan to the punisher of the wicked. Jim Corrigan as he once was ceased to exist.

He was now The Spectre.

**oooo**

Oz awoke, finally, after a good night's rest. He had been able to open up one of the safe houses that Robin had established in year one, which thankfully predated his affiliation with the Teen Titans in his own universe, and, using the still-working passwords, had managed to find a place to rest. As long as Robin didn't check those security tapes, nobody would find him there.

He could access the computer with impunity. It seemed that the Oracle, the information broker that worked exclusively for metahumans that fought for justice, didn't even exist in this universe, and therefore could not monitor the computer traffic.

After showering, Oz donned his trademark dark coat, which was finally starting to be useful as the whether had been getting colder.

"'I follow him to serve my turn upon him'," Oz quoted, grabbing a tape recorder and a nutri-bar for breakfast. He figured the local papers would be more likely to have information about the disturbance of the previous night than the Internet, so he headed off to a nearby convenience store and purchased one, along with a coffee, before sitting down at the station's cafe' and scanning the headlines.

Election news. Dinby and Clinton were neck and neck in the poles.

Bad news. Other, unrelated bad news...

Ah, there was something. It was a headline that read _Costumed Vigilante Suspected in Three Killings..._

Oz looked at the picture, a concept sketch based on an empathic image that Raven had given a police officer, said the article. The massive yellow hair that made Oz cringe, and a bright suit aside, the first thing that stood out was the hourglass across the man's chest...

But then, Oz saw it—the face... And it shocked him to his core...

**oooo**

"A noisy lighthouse, eh?" the tall man asked as he entered. He did not fear. He would be safe, no matter what Severus Snape threw at him.

Emmanuel entered the bar and was instantly obscured by the bright light pouring in behind him, and by the subsequent darkness when the door shut. His manner of dress and the hair on his head caused alarm, though whether it was because the recognized him from the paper or a general unease at such an odd one, Emmanuel did not know.

"Can I help you?" the bartender asked as Emmanuel approached.

Emmanuel spoke loudly, annoyingly so to the poor patrons who were completely oblivious, (most of them anyway, to the danger. Several of them got up and made hasty efforts to leave.)

"This establishment, this house of evils. It offends me."

"If you're turned off by drinkin', then why did you come into a bar?" asked the bartender incredulously.

"To cull the wicked," Emmanuel replied evenly. Then he snapped up his Staff and slid the pointed end across the bartender's throat.. Several patrons gasped as blood from the tip of the blade flew across the room and splattered on their faces and clothing.

The bartender made a faint gurgling and collapsed, blood beginning to pool around him.

And now, the customers panicked, several of them not even able to get to the door without walking right by Emmanuel. Several tried, a man in overalls being the first. He lunged past, only to have the Staff's blade shoved through his stomach, then twisted and jerked out, causing blood and bile to spill on the floor. Then Emmanuel turned and blasted with the weapon's energy attack, vaporizing another customer as she tried to escape.

The panic reached a crescendo as the woman was burned to ashes, and Emmanuel reveled in the slaughter, cutting each one down or blasting them to dust where they stood. Most of the ones that tried to flee never made it to the door, and those that did were blasted before they could open it.

"You will all die! So has decreed Emmanuel! Purveyor of judgment, and all that jazz!"

The Old Voice screamed in his head, for him to stop, for him to end the madness and bloodshed. Just another deception, Emmanuel told himself. And through the death dance, one soul escaped, a woman, early fifties by the looks of her.

Emmanuel strode over, covered in blood and ash, and pointed the thunderous end of the staff at the woman's head. "Prepare to face judgment!"

"Please, no!" The woman sobbed, trying to rub off the blood that stained her arms. "Don't kill me! I have a daughter! She..."

"Allowing her to continue with you as a parent would be unforgivable. She is better off without your vile influence!"

Emmanuel started to pull the trigger, but the Old Voice interrupted him: _STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT! What would Mom say?_

The frozen Emmanuel replied, through clinched teeth, "How dare you invoke the name of my mother," demon.

The terrified woman before him looked terribly confused.

_If you kill her, I will kill us the next time I have control! _

"Control? Control?" Emmanuel blurted, then burst into a fit of laughter, maniacal laughter more befitting the Joker than anyone who claimed to work for God. And considering the thirty-odd bodies on the floor, he lived up to that green-haired madman's laugh easily.

"Control is mine to ration," he bellowed, and pulled the trigger on his Staff. A yellow beam lanced out into the woman's face, her tears, then her blood and brain exploding into vapor as her skull became like dust in the wind.

_That's it. I will find a way to kill you. Even if I have to die in the process._

"Not bloody likely," Emmanuel said as he left.

**oooo**

And from a distance, the Spectre sensed the atrocity. Though he was not permitted to punish a crime he did not witness personally, he could feel the mad evil radiating from somewhere just south of the bay.

Murder an Blasphemy in one dark package—the Spirit of Vengeance was on the move.

**oooo**

So was Emmanuel, unfortunately, as evidenced by the scene the Titans had found at the bar, and the scene they were surveying now. Three dead cops, none of them disintegrated this time, lay splayed across an alley.

"This is horrible," Cyborg said, turning away as soon as he saw the scene.

One of the cops was found lying in the alley face first below a clothesline on which hagged a massive blue tunic with an hourglass symbol on the chest. It was still drenched with the blood of the victims at the Noisy Lighthouse.

Another had his neck broken, his body armor riddled with bullets from the third cops gun. The third cop had been shot in the head with the gun of the second cop, despite that it was still clenched in the second cop's death grip.

"Three vicious murders of cops, all done without using his weapon," Robin said. "What does this tell us?"

"That this guy is a major sicko?" Beast Boy asked.

"That he is a servant of my father?" Raven said, in all seriousness. Not in the literal sense, but in the same sense that Jeff Dahmer could be called a servant of the devil. He murdered compulsively. He had to be a being of pure evil, just like Trigon.

"More than that," Robin said. "This guy is a brilliant strategist. He was out numbered and out gunned, running from three fresh cops, and he still found a way to take them. He couldn't have been more than a few seconds ahead of them, which meant he had to formulate and enact this trap in a matter of those seconds."

Raven and Beast Boy were silent. Cyborg sighed. "I'm just glad Kori didn't see this," he said.

"I wish she had." Robin's words drew puzzled looks from his team mates. "If she or Collin find him, they don't know what they're up against, even if he's only human."

"You think he could be more than human," Beast Boy asked?

"I contacted Batman about missing energy weapons in the form of a staff," Robin sighed. "About two years ago, a convoy left STAR Labs in New York with a cache of energy weapons, including a case of weapons that match Raven's description of what this guy wielded."

Beast Boy bristled. "You think he raided that truck?"

"Not raided it," Robin said. "It crashed into a truck carrying some sort of hazardous chemicals, and the contents of both were spilled. There were no known witnesses, and both companies kept it VERY hush-hush. Batman had trouble getting information, and THAT is saying something."

"Wow. So he found the weapons, and what? Decided to go on a crusade against white trash?" Cyborg shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense."

"The chemicals in the truck were unknowns," said Robin. "If this guy breathed them in, it could have caused his brain to come completely unhinged."

"No way, dude, he'd be dead."

"You survived sakutia," Robin pointed out. "Cyborg survived getting chewed on by a blob from another dimension."

Cyborg glared dangerously at Robin, but Robin let it slide. He knew Vic wouldn't say anything unless he brought up Vic's mother. Then there'd be a war. But having lost his own father to a third tier villain, Robin was wise NOT to even consider mentioning Vic's mother. Besides, the fact she was dead would have made his point moot anyway.

"So the chemicals broke his mind?" Raven asked. "Does Batman _KNOW _this?"

"No, but it's our best hypothesis at the moment. We agreed it makes more sense than anything."

"Wouldn't the batteries on that thing run out after two years, though?" Beast Boy asked.

"Hey," Cyborg said, "my power cells last for two years and I require a heckuva lot more than any gun."

"Ah, nuts," Beast Boy sighed.

**oooo**

Suddenly, a power surged through Raven, and urgency filled her. "Guys!" She blurted. "We have to find Star and Rag quickly. Spectre is coming!"

"WHAT!" Robin blurted. He turned and swore, looking around as if searching the sky for any sign of him. "If he's coming after you..." Robin trailed off.

"If he's coming after me, then I die," she said. "And the world is better off."

"Raven," Beast Boy chided, "don't talk like that."

"It's the truth," she said. "I can't hope to face the Spectre."

Robin interrupted. "Raven is right. None of us are a match for him. We have to get moving anyway. The murderer is getting farther away while we're standing around here doing nothing. And if the Spectre is after him, then... try and stall him!"

"Stall the friggin' Spirit of God's wrath?" Cyborg blurted futilely as Robin swung away on his zip-line. "How pray tell, do we do THAT!"

"Think of something," Raven said, " as she flew off in a slightly different direction than Robin.

Beast Boy transformed into an avian, and flew off, leaving Cyborg alone The metallic teen pulled out his keys and pressed a button, and the T-Car uncloaked several blocks down and drove over to his location. He got in, and took off. _If I ever build me a new body, it's gonna have a jet pack,_ he thought as he rounded the corner.

**oooo**

Emmanuel ran along the roof tops, even as the Tamaranian pursued. It had not been a tactical mistake; without his robes he would be nearly invisible in the dark, because underneath them his Armor of Punished Sin was black as night. It was what had allowed him to hide as he had slain the police in that alley way.

He smirked at the thrill he remembered.

The cop, haphazardly following the blood-covered avenger into the alley. He walked under the cloak in the alley, thinking it was just another blanket being hanged out to dry, not even noticing the blood stains, so focused was he on finding Emmanuel.

And then, from the fire escape—this was the good part!—Emmanuel let the bladed end of his Staff fall, and fall it did. Right through the first officer's throat. After that, the initial shock of watching their companion's life stripped from him like that, the other two had gone very easily. First blood tended to disorient anyone who saw it shed.

But running along the rooftops, he had failed to take into account that half the Titans, the city's protectors, could fly. Emmanuel harrumphed. He had heard that they served justice, and yet here there were, just as he had predicted, labeling him a murderer and trying to stop _him_! The purveyor of justice!

_No,_ said the Old Voice, _They are going after real justice. You're just a psychopath!_

"Shut up!" Emmanuel new the truth. They were evil, servants of the underworld. What could be expected from teens who took their name from the pagan gods of old?

"Ha! I laugh at thee!" Emmanuel said, spinning around and blasting his Staff at Starfire. The alien dodged the attack and returned with a series of Starbolts, which Emmanuel dodged. He fired at her again, but she swooped in low and charged at him.

Emmanuel waited until the last possible minute and stepped out of the way and thrust his bladed end of his Staff into the banshee's path. She screamed and diverted course, but not enough to avoid it entirely. The sharp razor bit deep into her right leg and cut a gouge down the side. The alien screamed in pain, and blasted at Emmanuel with the green fire from her eyes. But she missed.

"You will not thwart my justice!" he growled, trying again to disintegrate the Tamaranian.

She avoided his fiery retribution once again, flying up despite the pain and blood loss. Had she been human, the cut would have opened her femoral artery and caused her to bleed to death. But obviously her physiology was different enough to prevent that from happening.

Still, she was bleeding quite profusely. She couldn't continue to fight him long.

"Surrender now, and I will make your death painless." Emmanuel said.

"How about plan B?" a new voice came. Emmanuel turned just in time to see a steel-toed boot slam into his face. The impact sent him flying across the rooftop and skidding several times before he managed to get up.

"I am the Scion of Judgment! The Ragnarök of the Corrupt 'gods' of this world!" bellowed the Purveyor. "Who dares strike Emmanuel in the face?"

"I dare," said the Teen Titan known as Robin. "Stand down or I'll bring you down."

**oooo**

So, he called himself Emmanuel? Fitting for a psychopath acting like he was God.

Obviously, Manny and the leader of the Titans didn't see eye to eye on that last issue, as Manny immediately blasted at Robin with his staff, though he missed by a wide arc. Robin had been shot at enough to know how to dodge such attacks.

Robin could see the STAR Labs symbol on the staff weapon even from here. That meant he had guessed right. He had his communicator in one hand, concealed, so he brought it to his mouth as if to wipe sweat, and pressed the button. "Titans, I've found him. Get to my location ASAP."

"Calling your friends, I see?" Emmanuel snarked. "They'll be too late."

Robin was surprised that he caught the action, but didn't betray that surprise.

"You okay, Kori?" Robin shot over his shoulder at the wounded Tamaranian. She was now leaning against the roof access door, tying a torn piece of her skirt around her leg, though Robin didn't know if it were as a sling, a tourniquet, or a bandage. Well, the orange blood staining the ground indicated bandage, but Robin wasn't in the most analytical mood.

"I will be better off once you perform the whoop on his but, Robin," Starfire said.

"Gladly." Robin charged forward, and as expected Emmanuel fired at him again. But this time Robin was more than ready, and rolled out of the way as he had before. Only now, he knew exactly what he was up against, and hurled his birdarang true, slamming into the firing end of the Staff just as Manny tried to fire again, this shot not charged up near as long.

As you might expect, this caused a rather satisfying (for Robin, anyway,) BOOM!

The BOOM, from Manny's perspective, however, was not so pleasant. His head jerked back as the heat burned his face and singed his hairs, and he threw the Staff down, cursing.

"You defiled the Staff!" He bellowed. "Now I must bring the full Wrath of God on you."

"The only wrath that's going to be brought here is mine on your face," Robin shot back, darting forward and drawing his bo-staff as he ran. Emmanuel just stood there as Robin began to strike, but at the last minute, the psycho rolled out of the way and Robin hit only air, only to be hit in the back a second later.

Manny had rolled under the strike and grabbed his own Staff, an slammed the destroyed head of the firing chamber into Robin's back.

Master strategist, just as Robin had said.

Robin realized what had just happened and twirled around, to block the follow-up strike and realized that not only did he still have a weapon, but one end of it was still bladed. This made Robin all the more determined **not** to leave the bastich an opening.

Robin used both hands to block Manny's downward strike and push him away. Then he dropped into a sweep and tried to take out Manny's legs, but the psycho jumped the attack and thrust his blade into Robin's face.

The Boy wonder nearly got a third eye in his forehead, leaning back just as the blade shot forward, and thrusting backwards, straining his abdominals with the very unnatural movement.

But it managed to save his life, and he attacked the monster again, this time being more careful. He obviously knew something of what he was doing, so Robin took it more cautiously, waiting for the murderer to make a mistake.

"Why do you call yourself Emmanuel?" Robin baited him, stalling for time.

"Because God is with me!" the beast bellowed, kicking him in the chest. Something about that armor, that jet black armor. It must be enhancing his muscle coordination somehow.

Either that, or he was just that dang good.

Both possibilities were unpleasant. Robin shot back up, finally fighting at his maximum level, and amazed that even here, they seemed to be even, parrying each others blows and such, basically performing a massive bo-vs-bo kata, but for real, unrehearsed, and lethal.

And the fact that both had a blade and was willing to kill gave Emmanuel a distinct advantage, whether Robin wanted to admit it or not.

**oooo**

And two blocks away, Oz watched the fight through a pair of binoculars, dictating into a tape-recorder he held with the other hand.

"Robin has engaged the psycho in a martial arts fight. Starfire is apparently weak from loss of blood, or has already passed out. I can only see her shadow against the building. There is quite a bit of blood on the roof top."

Oz grimaced. He hoped that Starfire would be okay.

"Thankfully, Robin taught me how to read lips, so I should be able to tell what they are saying even from this distance. Let's see..."

He began to make out the words the murderer was bellowing: "'I... am... E..man...you..ell.'" Oz read, "'The Purveyor of God's justice... on the wicked.'"

Oz shrugged, trying not to exhale into the recorder's microphone. "Well, it may not be my world, but it's certainly no less interesting."

Oz sat back, watching the fight with the naked eye. Robin and Emmanuel seemed to be constantly alternating who had the upper-hand.

Hm? What was that? Oz could have sworn he thought he heard something? The Titans were nearing Robin's position, finally. But it was something else. Something closer. And it was wearing a green cloak.

"Holy mother of biscuits!" Oz stammered, not wanting to swear or use God's name in vain if_ that w_as who the thought it was. "He can't be HERE!"

And the misty shadows and outlines formed into a shape, a human body, white as snow. And the green cloak became and object around him, rather than a whisper. It really was him. The Spirit of Vengeance. Oz lost it then.

"Razzin, Frazzin, blasted son of a grebnack! The SPECTRE. THE FREAKING SPECTER is HERE?"

Oz swore and turned to leave; he didn't want to be involved in this! ...But he felt compelled to watch; it wasn't every day you actually witnessed The Spectre waste a psycho. It was only through a seemingly paradoxical combination of willpower and sheer morbid curiosity that he permitted himself to watch...

**oooo**

"Cyborg," Raven warned through her communicator. "We've got trouble. The Specter is coming."

"Aw, crud," Vic's voice returned over her comlink. "What should we do."

"Get in his face, prevent him from watching the fight. He likes to do things personally, and as long as we keep his attention on us, Robin has a chance to bring the crazy guy to justice without spilling his entrails everywhere."

Cyborg repeated the order to beast Boy and Ragnarök, and then ejected himself from the T-Car inspector gadget style, blasting at the gradually growing apparition in the sky. Raven stayed back as Rag and Beast Boy did the same thing. If Spectre killed them, he'd have to answer to the Man up stairs, but just proximity would be agony to Raven thanks to her demon blood and the runes still burned under her skin.

She could try a magic barrier, but she had serious doubts to whether it would hold him.

**oooo**

**_K'TANK_**

**_K'TINK. _**

The staff's continued to clash, though it was clear Robin was tiring faster than his opponent. Was it something about that armor after all, or was it just the fires of a fanatic burning in his soul?

Robin didn't know, but he knew he had to end the fight and fast. Suddenly, he smirked.

"HIGH-YAH!" Robin attacked with more ferocity than he had for several minutes, pushing his opponent away from the edge of the roof.

"You fight well, but so do all the demons who stand against me! The die anyway."

Robin kicked him in the chest and sent him flying back.

"You foul little...!"

**_BOOOM!_**

Emmanuel was cut off when Starfire's green blast slammed into his back. The monster let out a scream and his eyes almost bulged. "That's not fair!" He said, collapsing. Robin ran over to pin him, placing his bo-staff across his chest and elbows, and leaning on it to prevent movement. Pinned down, Robin started to cuff the madman...

Suddenly, Manny opened his eyes with a tortured hiss...

But they were different; the sheer, cold hatred and sadism was gone, replaced by only terror. What the heck?

"PLEASE KILL ME!" the new person blurted. "KILL THIS BODY BEFORE THAT PSYCHO USES IT TO KILL ANYONE ELSE!"

"What?" Robin was dumbfounded... Could it be... a fractured personality rested within the twisted mind of Emmanuel?

"KILL ME! BEFORE HE REGAINS CONTROL!"

"I..." Robin stammered. How could he just kill a guy in cold blood?

Robin eased off and Emmanuel rolled over on top of him, grabbing is face and begging, crying, insisting that he be killed.

"DO IT! AUUGH!"

Suddenly, the fearful, tear-stained eyes of whoever he used to be slammed shut, and when they opened again, they were again black pits of vitriol. "I will not allow Snape to control me!" He blurted, hurling himself off Robin, but before he could get to the Staff again, Starfire destroyed it with a well-aimed starbolt, the device snapping in half where the bolt hit it.

"No! My staff!" suddenly, Emmanuel was off, darting faster than Robin could in his fatigue, and diving off the building into the ever increasing darkness; the sun was setting. Robin ran to the edge and looked down but saw nothing, and Kori was, after two starbolts and a pint of blood loss, on the verge of unconsciousness.

"Unbelievable!" Robin blurted. "I HAD him and he got away! UgH."

Robin walked over and put his arms around Kori. Would she be alright? He thought she would, but he didn't know how much blood Tamaranians could safely lose.

And then, something occurred to him. Did Emmanuel LET his other half have control? Did he give control to whoever he once was, just because he knew Robin would let off an innocent victim?

_He's a master strategist_

Robin didn't like the conclusion he couldn't help but reach.

**oooo**

By the time the rest of the Titans got there, Emmanuel was long gone. Oz continued to survey them, almost not believing that the had managed to distract the Spectre long enough for Robin to take him down...

Then that sudden reversal happened, and Manny had gotten away. That didn't bode well, as it seemed that for a minute, the original personality had taken control of the body. Oz shuddered. He had once been broken, his mind shattered. But he had recovered, and he had never turned into a psychotic murderer. He couldn't imagine what the guy buried underneath all that vitriol was going through, having his body used like a meat puppet killing machine.

After the fight had ended, Raven had shown up from wherever she had been and fixed up Koriand'r's leg a bit.

Hm. Activity down at the roof top. Oz leaned over and stared into his binoculars; the new Titan Ragnarök had alerted Robin of SOMETHING. Was the Spectre back for another round?

No, the guy was pointing—in Oz's direction!

"What? He couldn't have seen me," Oz said, "I'm two blocks away!"

He decided that the sudden outburst needed an explanation on the tape recorder.

"Ragnarök is pointing my direction, telling Robin to look. Wait... now he's screaming something something: 'Hey, you! Are you spying on us?' Oh crap!"

Oz got up and turned to run, when all of a sudden, shadow surrounded him.

Raven.

The girl materialized from the darkness, and brought her beautiful violet eyes to bear on him. "Um... hi?" Oz tried.

"You." Raven said derisively. "What are you doing here?"

"Fact-finding. Research, my dear. Research."

"Why are you spying on us! Who are you?—tell me your name."

He considered the wisdom of complying for a moment, and shrugged. "Around here, I go by Oz," he said. "And if you'll excuse me, my love, I'd really like not to be captured, maimed, or eviscerated today."

Oz had, while talking to Raven, removed the tape from the recorder, and now he tossed the empty device towards her face. Not with enough force to hurt her, just enough to distract her. Then he made a mad dash towards the edge of the building and hurled himself off, thankful that Beast Boy was slow in the air and Starfire couldn't pursue him.

Thankful for the fact of the matter, if not the reason.

The rush of wind as he fell exhilarated him; it had been so long since he'd done this. Ah, the reckless abandon of youth. Well, he was still young, but after all he'd been through, he felt years older.

It seemed like hours he had fallen, though it was probably no more than a few seconds. He had reached terminal velocity, and knew he had to act soon or go splat. Summoning his powers within, Oz stretched out his right hand...

_**FLASH!**_

**oooo**

Raven followed her mysterious stalker to the edge of the building—after determining the empty recorder was not a threat. Obviously, she had taken just a bit too long to get there, because when she looked off, the man was completely vanished. He wasn't a smudge on the sidewalk but she hadn't heard the sonic boom it would have taken to fly away that fast, even though after her previous encounter at the Titans Tower with this 'Oz', she had determined his powers might include flight. After all, she'd thrown him through a window and he'd somehow got back in...

Ragnarök's visor had proven very useful, identifying the possible threat from two blocks away. Raven hoped it it could eventually lead to the stalker's capture.

"Well, Oz, whoever you are," Raven sighed, "we will be watching out for you."

**oooo**

And seven blocks away, the wounded, furious Emmanuel staggered through another dark alley.

_What is it with you? _The Old Voice asked. _You have an alley fetish or something?_

"Shut up!" Emmanuel blurted, falling on his knees in the circle of reddish light in front of him. "I will not give in to your wiles, Bender!"

_I thought I was Snape._

Manny made a noise that was an approximation of the noise that Howard Dean made after losing the Iowa caucus, combined with the roar of an angry Wookiee.

Suddenly, something didn't seem right. Why was the light in this ally red? Manny looked up, and saw that not only were there no red lights above him, but there were NO sources of light at all, at least not any that could be casting this glow...

"Is this a sign?" He asked.

_I don't like this, Manny... I feel funny._

And then, out of nowhere, a new voice arrived, not the Old Voice or Emmanuel's voice, but something... different. Something ancient.

Something _EVIL._

**EMMANUEL.**It said. **DO YOU BOW BEFORE ME?**

"Is that you, my liege?" he asked the demon.

_Get out of here! NOW! _The Old Voice screamed._ We're in trouble! Whatever that thing is, it AIN'T GOD!_

_**EMMANUEL. I AM YOUR MASTER. YOU SERVE ME. I WILL BURN MY MARK INTO YOUR FOREHEAD. IF YOU CONTINUE YOUR QUEST, YOU WILL BE GREATLY REWARDED.**_

"Of course, lord!" Emmanuel said gleefully. Was he blind? How could he not feel the evil that radiated from this voice?

Then again, The Old Voice mused, his new self WAS pure evil.

Suddenly, Emmanuel threw his head backwards against the ground and began to spasm, a burning on his forehead carving a mark...

Not the mark of Scath, but something just as sinister. A horizontal crescent, it's points jutting forth like spikes, and a third in the middle of the convex end appeared. The convex side got it's own spike jutting downward.

The mark was complete.

_**YOU SERVE ME NOW, EMMANUEL. DESTROY!**  
_

The STAR Labs symbol on what was left of the Staff of Judgment vanished, and in it's place, appeared the same mark that was on Emmanuel's forehead, and then, the thing _began to rebuild itself._

The mangled metal and shattered steel glowed with an evil light as the pulled themselves back together, until the Staff was finished. But it wasn't like it was before; it looked more powerful now, and dare it be thought, more _sinister._

_You crazy bastard,_ said the Old Voice._ You just made a deal with the devil..._

_

* * *

_Author's Note: Yes, normally I don't use even mild profanities in my fanfics but if you've figured out who Emmanuel is, then you'd know it would be really out of character for his Old Voice not to swear in this situation. :P


	9. God Complex: No Rest for the Wicked

**Author's Note: Sorry it took longer than I thought it would to get this chapter out. Been really busy.**

**

* * *

**  
I own nothing here but Emmanuel and Ragnarök. Titans are DC, Oz is borrowed from my friend and her brother, etc, etc, ad nauseum.

* * *

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Nine**

Power coursed through Emmanuel as he felt his strength returning. Truth be told, the fight with Robin had drained him very much. Only the urgency of his righteous cause had allowed him to keep going...

But now...

Now it wouldn't be a problem. This new power surged through his body, empowering him beyond his wildest dreams. Vengeance would be his!

**oooo**

Back at the Tower, Robin went over his fight with Emmanuel the previous day again and again in his mind, every mistake nagging at him. He was trying to remember how he fought, recall what moves he would take. If Emmanuel showed up again, Robin would have to be ready.

Then again, if he showed up again when the rest of the Titans were around, it wouldn't be a problem. But Starfire had lost a lot of blood, and Robin wondered if she shouldn't sit the next fight out. Then again, her race was resilient.

But Manny was a master strategist, it seemed. What if he had prepared for the rest of the Titans? With his staff broken, did he have anything left?

Suddenly, Robin was aware that the door to his private evidence room hissed open, and he heard the heavy footsteps of Cyborg walk up behind him. He took of his mask, and turned around, greeting Vic.

"What's up?" Cyborg asked. "You've been in here all morning."

"I'm just making sure I'm ready if that monster shows up again," Robin said.

"Star's been wanting to see you, Tim. She says it makes her worry 'bout you when you lock yourself in here."

Tim realized that if he had locked the door, that meant that Vic had picked it open, and that annoyed him for a minute. He let it slide though; it was only because they were concerned. Last time he had obsessed over a _single_ villain, it had almost cost him his life on _multiple_ occasions.

"I'll go." Tim simply said. He waited for Vic to leave, and after he had done so, Robin picked up the mask and put it back on, and followed Vic out the door.

**oooo**

Tim was just on his way out of his evidence room when Raven floated up beside him and matched his pace. "What's on your mind?" he asked her.

"I'm going out for a bit."

Robin arched an eyebrow under his mask. "Where?"

"I'll explain when I get back."

"I'd really appreciate it if you'd explain _now._" Robin said. "I thought we stopped keeping secrets from each other."

"You know you can't keep me here," Raven smirked. "I just wanted to let you know. If I'm not back in an hour, activate my signal locater."

"Raven, wait!" Robin stammered, but before he could stop her, she vanished in a wave of shadow. Okay, the thought. Raven was old enough to watch out for herself. She knew what she was doing.

But that didn't mean Tim wouldn't talk to her about obeying orders when she got back. Speaking of that of and Raven in general, that guy who had been spying on them had spoken to Raven as if they'd met before. Or at least that was how it had sounded from what Robin heard over the channel Cyborg had opened with Raven's communicator.

He _knew_ he had to look into that. Ugh. Emmanuel first, then Spectre. And now they had some mystery man spying on them. Just wonderful. One crisis right after another.

**oooo**

In a diner on the far side of town Raven followed the mental impulses she was getting until she saw him. He was sitting at the diner's bar in an old-school style trench coat, eating a bagel and having a coffee, a brown hat covering his blond hair. He looked very much like a detective from one of those old serials.

That was odd, considering who he _really_ was.

The man produced some money from his pocket and paid the server, and then got up and walked towards the exit of the diner holding onto his steaming coffee. Raven followed him outside, and matched his stride, eventually stepping in front of him.

"Excuse me," she said. "James Corrigan."

He studied her through her hologuise for a moment, and an amiable smile crossed his face. "Raven."

She nodded.

"Call me Jim," he said.

Raven shrugged, and walked with him. She, for whatever reason, decided that she should start off making small talk, and she had just the topic. "I'm surprised that you still have to eat." She said it in as good a natured a manner as she could manage.

"Ah, well, such is life. Jesus was God himself and he had to eat." Jim rounded the corner with Raven, and the two kept walking, now slightly more sunlight on them.

"**_Is_** Jesus really God's son?" Raven asked pointedly.

"I believe he is," Jim said.

Raven was really confused by now. "If anyone knew for sure, wouldn't you?" She asked.

Jim shrugged again, "Hey, I only follow the Voice. I'm not privy to the thoughts of the Mind."

Raven nodded. She didn't quite understand, but she'd accept what he said. For now, anyway. "I suppose you do know why I've come here, Mr. Corrigan."

"Well, I suppose," he started, "that it has something to do with Emmanuel."

"My friend and I would like to try and bring him in alive. His mind—"

She was cut off. "His mind is pure evil, and it requires justice," Jim said firmly, but not bitterly.

"He's insane."

"What's insane is the joy he felt at murdering those police officers, the relish he took in cutting down those people in the bar. You know who I am, and that I can't let it slide, Raven."

Raven sighed. "His personality is fractured. There's more than one person inside his body. Killing Emmanuel will kill whoever he was to begin with," she argued.

"I know. And if I heard correctly last night, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. I'm sure he wants to be released from that prison."

"But—"

"Raven," he interrupted, "I am sorry, but it must be done. And... " Jim hesitated a moment. "Last night, Emmanuel came into the service of a demon, a servant of Apollyon. Now more than ever, he must be destroyed."

The half-demon nodded somberly. What was a demon of the Pit doing in Jump City? Raven briefly wondered if it had anything to do with her father. Finally, she sighed, and looked at Jim Corrigan. "Then can I ask you a favor?"

"Shoot," he said.

"My friends. If you go after Emmanuel, they will try and distract you. They think he can be helped, and I know they won't let you kill him if they can stop it."

"I know," Jim said.

"Please, don't hurt them."

Jim walked a few steps ahead of Raven before realizing that she had stopped. He turned around, and smiled. "I wouldn't think of it."

**oooo**

Emmanuel struck again surprisingly early, and in broad daylight. The Titans hadn't got much rest, but being heroes, they had to do what they had to do. It wasn't long before they found themselves facing off against him in the same bank courtyard where they had first confronted Flare, the crazed Japanese fire-warrior.

But now, there was something different. For one thing, Emmanuel's robes were back and looked good as new, no carbon scoring, no burns or tears, and no blood stains. But worse, was that his so called Staff of Judgment was also somehow fixed.

And it was bigger and more threatening looking, too. It baffled Beast Boy as he dodged the shots from it, knowing that they would fry him in an instant unless he took the form of a really big animal.

Starfire, though injured, swooped in and blasted Starbolts at the monster, but amazingly, he dodged them almost casually, and the second volley he batted away with his staff.

"Um," Beast Boy started. "Didn't that thing BREAK when Starfire shot it yesterday?"

"It did," Cyborg said. "I don't know that's going on, but he's more powerful than he was."

"It doesn't matter," Robin said. "He could be as good as Slade himself; we still have to bring him down!" The Boy Wonder darted forward, rolled under a blast from his new and improved Staff, and batted said staff away with his bo, then smacked the man across the face. As Emmanuel reeled back, his bandanna came off, and then Robin saw it: the mark.

It wasn't Trigon's mark of Scath, but it gave an eerie resemblance to it. Robin somehow knew instantly what it meant: Emmanuel had come into the service of a demon.

"You sold your soul, didn't you," Robin barked, not understanding exactly how the mechanics of such 'deals' worked, and really not wanting to know. He just new what he had seen with Slade and now feared for his life.

His fears were warranted, too, as suddenly, Manny took one hand off his Staff and pointed it at Robin. Robin was expecting flames to burn out, but what happened instead shocked him.

Literally. A golden whip-like construct of pure yellow energy lashed out from somewhere underneath Emmanuel's skin and wrapped around Robin, and then began to surge electricity through his body, singeing where it touched and disorienting him painfully all over.

"Mortal. You will fall before the might of Emmanuel!"

"Wanna bet?" a new voice bit in. Raven again.

"Well," Manny said, "If it isn't the devil's daughter?" Raven had appeared a few yards above the battle, her hands primed to attack, the dark energy flowing over them.

"Cut the small talk. I know what you've become, and I am going to defeat you before the Spectre gives you what you probably really deserve. Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Raven's cry went answered as multiple objects on the rooftop, including debris strewn about by the battle, flew up and blasted towards Emmanuel. But the monster dodged away from it, only to be blasted in the back by a sonic cannon attack and then hit by a Starbolt in the chest, which drove him to the ground.

Manny rolled over and, from the ground, assumed a lunging position and then_ leapt_—not lunged—from it, across the rooftop onto the roof access door, twirling his staff around to aim at the Titans, and fired off a blast, which exploded like a bomb from the end of his weapon, and slammed into the rooftop knocking all the non-flying Titans off their feet and sending Starfire and Raven blasting backwards through the air. Also, it caused part of the ceiling to cave in on the building, which meant Raven was instantly busy trying to stop debris from hitting bystanders stupid enough to remain in the building with a metabrawl going on on top of it.

Robin, meanwhile pursued Manny over the gap between buildings, only to watch as the self-proclaimed dealer of justice jumped again, this time two blocks. Whatever that demon had done had made him stronger. Emmanuel landed with at thud and kept on running, and Robin knew there was no way he could catch up with him, and even if he did, that he couldn't take this new Emmanuel on alone.

He turned and realized that all the rest of the Titans were helping with the building Manny had almost destroyed, so Robin went back to oversee that. And to check on some other issues...

**oooo**

Seven blocks away, Oz sat on a rooftop fifteen stories up, and again watched the Teen Titans through binoculars. He hadn't begun dictating yet, and exhaled sharply. It seemed that he was right in his assessment that this incarnation of the team didn't have what it took.

Well, maybe they did. But after that terrible bungling of the fight against Emmanuel, he had his doubts. Oz pressed the record button on his tape player and began to dictate.

"The Titans engaged the one called Emmanuel again at approximately 2:38 this afternoon. The fight lasted only twenty minutes, and ended when Raven intervened. Emmanuel seemed almost scared or unnerved by her presence, and fled shortly after making sure the Titans had other concerns. Robin pursued him immediately, while the remaining five stayed behind to rescue bystanders from a building damaged by Emmanuel."

Oz thought a moment and thought thought it wise to include a disclaimer.

"Yesterday, Ragnarök was able to spot me from two blocks away. I am now seven blocks away. If the new Titan can still see me from here, he should give up his job and go join the circus. Tim said that's where the first Robin, now Nightwing, got his start."

Oz noticed that Robin had given up pursuit after Emmanuel had literally leapt a football field's length to get away and took off like a Speed Force user across the rooftops towards a district of town that did not exist in Oz's Jump City.

"It seems that since yesterday, Emmanuel has gotten some new abilities and upgrades himself, including one that bears no small resemblance to my own talent with one shocking difference. Literally.

"Okay, Robin is back now, and talking briefly with Ragnarök. He seems to be berating the poor guy. As if he doesn't get enough flak from Robin. Hm.

"These are good binoculars; reading lips will be more difficult from this distance but it is still doable."

Oz studied Robin a moment. "Let's see... why is he crossing his arms? He's facing this way so it's a bit easier to read him. 'Hey, you... turn.. around...' ... ... **_Aw crap_**."

Oz immediately jumped to his feet and turned around, expecting Raven, or a Titans East member, or... heck, SOMETHING threatening...

What he wasn't expecting was Tara Markov.

"Hello there," she said, but without a trace of hospitality.

"Um. Hi there yourself, Markov."

Tara's eyes betrayed a bit of surprise at the fact he knew her name, but not the shock that he had hoped for and banked on. He was still not quite sure why Tara wasn't even stone anymore, and why if she wasn't, that she wasn't on the team.

Tara said nothing now, and darted forward. Oz rolled towards her and kicked at her knee, but she jumped over it, and reversed directions as she landed, and lunged back towards him, punching and kicking, and doing many things that were terribly un-Tara-like.

**oooo**

**  
Tara didn't have any idea who he was or why he was stalking the Titans, but the idea he had something sinister in store for Beast Boy made her gladly agree to take him down for them. And the trap had worked so perfectly. She only hoped that rule about villains winning the first fight with the heroes didn't prove true here.**

"Stop it!" The stalker barked, back flipping away and extending a hand. White lines lashed out, and the surprised Tara reacted by juking left. The lines from Oz's hand shifted and came after her, only to immediately recoil simultaneously with Oz in pain as Tara drew a huge combat knife from a slit in her pant leg and drove it through the white mass of whatever it was coming from the stalker's hand.

Tara sliced it again, and both man and airborne goo recoiled in pain again, but recovered too quickly for Tara's taste as survival kicked in and Oz buried the agony. More lines shot out and grabbed Tara by the wrists causing her to drop her knife, then jerked her forward. Tara used the momentum that Oz gave her against him, jumping over his head and planting a foot firmly into the side of his neck.

She could see the shock run through his spine as her foot made contact.

"Since when can you fight like this?" Oz asked her, holding his neck and trying to fake less damage than it had given him. Tara could see through the ruse, though.

"Since Slade taught me to!" Tara barked, darting at him again, aware now that the white gunk from his hands was vulnerable to cutting it, and that he had absolutely no idea what she was capable of. The white lines came again, this time from his feet, causing him to spring upwards. But Tara cut them with a back-up knife as he jumped, throwing off his landing, and then she dived towards him again, slashing his arm when he threw a punch and then kicking him in the chest. Oz flew backwards and landed on an air conditioner pipe, then got up, holding the arm Tara had cut.

Oz swore and acted like he was regretting something, or debating it. Whatever it was, he must have decided against it, because he suddenly fell to his knees, a good bit of the fight from his eyes gone. Tara briefly wondered if it was a trap, then saw how the carotid artery on his neck was throbbing. Ouch.

Well, if he was stalking the Titans, he deserved it, she guessed.

"Give up?" asked Tara.

"'And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.'" Oz quoted.

When Tara arched her eyebrow, Oz explained: "John F. Kennedy. (The only good liberal—all the skirt-chasing aside.)"

After a beat, Oz added, "Defeat, on the other hand, I will do, however begrudgingly." Then he promptly passed out.

**oooo**

The Titans had all gathered around the prison room, a transparent barrier between them and their stalker. Tara had accepted some extra cash for taking him down, and had spoken with Garfield briefly before leaving, so now only the six Titans were there. They had all pulled chairs from all over the tower into the detainment area.

"He's still not awake?" Beast Boy asked, returning from his late lunch.

"No." Raven said. "Tara hit him pretty hard."

"Actually," came a new voice, causing both teens to gasp, "I've been awake for the past five minutes. Just not sure whether I was _alive_. Until I heard an angel's voice." He smiled at Raven, and it creeped her out. That was saying a lot for Raven.

"Angel?" Raven asked. "I bet you've never had girlfriend."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Oz said.

"Hey, ROBIN!" Beast Boy yelled. "The creepy stalker is awake now!"

Oz smirked. As Robin walked in the room, he greeted him, "Hey Tim, what's up?"

Robin immediately went on the offensive. "Don't you dare call me that! I'm Robin! You don't know me, you DON'T use my name!"

"Whatever you say, Master Drake," he smirked. "How's Batman doing?"

Robin made a low, almost inaudible growl, but didn't say anything about it. "Why are you here? Why are you spying on us? Who _are _you?"

"_I wish I knew_, _because I like to know things_, and _you can call me Oz_. In that order."

"What do you mean you don't know why you're here?"

"My being here is a complete accident. I was about to do some important stuff, stop the bad guys and all, and then, to quote a certain hated Gungan, 'Poof. Mesa here.'"

"Dude," Beast Boy said, "WE'RE the good guys. You're the creepy spy!"

"You ever heard of double agents? Appearances aren't always what they seem you know. You had better watch who you're calling good and evil. And by the way, **_GARFIELD_**, you had better watch your step dad, maybe convince him to hang up the helmet for a while, or otherwise things will get messy."

"You leave Steve out of this!" Gar blurted. "Mento is a good man!"

"Definitely. And eventually, he will drive his team to their deaths if you don't find away to temper that drive of his. After that happens, he may not be a good man anymore."

"How do you know all this," Robin demanded. "And if you know so much about us, then why are you spying on us?"

"I know about who you were to begin with," Oz corrected. "I'd like to see who you are now"

Just about this time, Cyborg walked in. "Aw, man, is he talking in cryptic riddles?"

"Do I look like Edward Nygma, Vic?" Oz asked. "Or, what is it you guys call that little punk imitation? Kwiz Kid?"

"Don't call me Vic," he said with a low (but not at all veiled) threat in his voice. "You don't know me."

"Fair enough," he said. "By the way, how is Silas and that lab of his down in Florida? No demons or major explosions threatening to take out half of the city... er swamp, right?"

Cyborg didn't answer, and Oz sat back. "I'm unnerving you all, aren't I?"

"Raven," Robin started, "I know I normally don't ask things like this, but I am now. Probe his mind, find out everything you can. Force your way in if you have to."

At the sound of this, Oz's eyes lit up, and a strange expression of longing and fear twisted across his face. Finally, Robin had managed to unnerve him.

Unfortunately, about this time, the Titans Tower Alarm went off.

"Why Thursday?" Cyborg complained. "Always Thursdays!"

The Titans crowded into Ops in response to the alarm, and surveyed the monitor. Emmanuel, of course. All the other super villains were too afraid to be out with that madman on the loose.

Robin glanced out of the window of the tower and saw that it was unnaturally dark for the time of day, ominous clouds billowing and rolling over the city. Which could only mean...

"The Spectre is moving," Raven said. "I can feel him."

"What do we do?" asked Beast Boy.

"I can't go near him in his current form, but earlier, when I went out, I secured a promise that he won't harm any of you if you try to distract him."

"WHAT?" Robin blurted. "That is what you went out for earlier without telling me?"

Raven nodded. "I had to do it. Look, you can catch Emmanuel if you hurry. I'll stay here. Somebody has to guard our prisoner anyway. Now go!"

Robin nodded. "Alright. Me and Starfire will go after Emmanuel. Ragnarök, you take Vic and Gar and distract the Spectre."

"My command?" Rag blurted. "Why _my _command against the quasi-omnipotent dealer of Judgment?"

"Because you have to start somewhere, and where better than a mission against someone who's promised not to kill you?" Robin explained.

Collin thought for a moment, and said, "What if he breaks that promise?"

"He won't," Raven insisted. "Now go, before he drives the city into a panic!"

As the left, Robin wondered which 'he' Raven meant, considering Emmanuel's new powers.

**oooo**

Starfire blasted forward, carrying Robin and lancing eye-beams at Emmanuel, but to little effect. Emmanuel dived and flipped out of the way as if they were nothing. Then Starfire dropped Robin, who slammed into Emmanuel's face with his boots and drove him back. Manny rolled with the blow and came up firing his Staff, but not ordinary attacks this time, massive balls of fire. They exploded from his gun with a ferocity that surprised Robin and Starfire, and forced them to take cover.

The blasts slammed into buildings, and pedestrians began to flee. "Crap!" Robin snarled. The carnage that Manny had wrought before the Titans got there was similar to this, and it seemed like he was reveling in the destruction now.

"All the evil ones will burn under my fury!" he shrieked, firing now, not at the Titans but at the Wayne Enterprises building atop which Robin and fought all the other Titans West and won, under Slade's tutelage. The fire slammed into the building and massive explosions erupted from the upper stories.

"NO!" Robin snarled, hurling himself at Emmanuel. His bo made contact with Manny's neck and drove the madman back, and Robin pursued the attack, hitting the monster with anything he could. But Manny took it all in stride, somehow basking in the glow from the fires, as if drawing power from the destruction.

Robin jacked his fist into Emmanuel's face, trying to force that thought from his mind. He didn't need the baggage of worry and doubt, but he needed to be careful. The reformed Staff was deadly enough, but now, he had...

Suddenly, a tactile force, barely perceptible by touch, but constrictingly strong wrapped around him and sent a shock through Robin's body.

Ugh, the tendrils! Robin struggled, but it was futile, and from the look in his eye, Manny wouldn't stop until Robin was deep fried.

Thankfully, Starfire knew this and disrupted the attack with an eye beam, and then followed up with an series of devastating blows to the psycho. "You will NOT hurt Robin!" She commanded, spinning around and roundhouse-kicking him with her unwounded leg.

Emmanuel became like a baseball after Babe Ruth was done with it, flying from one roof top to another before landing with a thud. But it seemed he was pleased with the result, because he turned and fired his Staff at the two Titans, forcing them to dodge away or get burned to death.

"He's trying to keep distance between us and him. I just don't get why he's out in the open." Robin said. "It's like he _wants_ us to come after him."

"Perhaps he is trying to lead us into a trap set by whoever his new master is," Starfire pondered aloud.

Robin's eyes shot wide. "Wow, you're getting good at this. Though I really hope you're wrong."

Starfire smiled cheerfully. "I have a good teacher." After she said this, she immediately blasted downwards as another shot passed over her head, and then Emmanuel hurled small silver and red ball that looked like a grenade.

Because it was a grenade.

Robin tried to let out some form of expletive, but nothing came, and Starfire grabbed him and tossed him across the rooftop before shielding her face with one hand, blasting the grenade with the other, and flying backwards simultaneously.

These three things combined probably saved her life, but she was still blasted backwards through the air, and wasn't able to fly when she came down, landing next to Robin on her bottom and rolling over backwards with pop, her arm twisting into a position that was either dislocated or mind numbingly painful.

Robin ran over to her, glancing back to make sure Emmanuel wasn't blasting; he wasn't, at least at them. He was firing at something else, perhaps cops. Robin cursed the fact that Jump City's finest were facing that monster alone, but he had to make sure Starfire wasn't in mortal danger. Leaping down into the ally, Robin ran a current through his cape to activate the memory cloth and descended with the hand of Star's less wounded arm clutched in his free hand. It still was hard to fall without splatting, but he manged it for Kori's sake.

Splaying her out on the ground, Robin saw her eyes clinched in pain, her breathing shallow. "Starfire! Kori!" Robin tried. Robin cursed. He checked her pulse; it was fine, strong, but she was bleeding from cuts on her legs and arms.

"I will be fine," she said. "Honestly. These wounds are as nothing to my species."

"I_ will_ get him for this," Robin said, jumping up to the fire escape and climbing it back up to the roofs. Emmanuel was still fighting with the police, so Robin darted ahead... and suddenly had to stop when an 800 lb Cyborg landed in front of him and skidded backwards...

"Vic!" Robin blurted, and suddenly realized what his presence must have meant. Vic fired over Robin's head, and Robin turned to look into the burning, vengeful eyes of the now-massive Spectre. Ragnarök and Beast Boy were trying to block his line of sight with everything they could think of. But Spectre kept batting them aside, breaking their barriers, and forcing them to fall back.

But he wasn't attacking them, at least. Thank God for small favors. In this case, literally favors.

It occurred to Robin that there would be no denying the spirit's presence in Jump City now. But it also meant that Robin had to take Emmanuel down IMMEDIATELY, or both him and whoever he used to be would face the wrath of the Spectre, and any hope of saving either of them from this madness would be lost.

**oooo**

Back at the Tower, Raven sat silently meditating in front of the prisoner. Oz had alternated between various positions and seats within the small but not uncomfortable prison. He was now reclining against a type of psychologist's chair that Robin had brought in one afternoon, saying that Batman had bought it at an auction and had no place to put it.

When Gar had commented how out of place Batman would look at an auction, and how amusing it would be and how much money—if he'd had any—that he would pay to see such a thing, Robin had explained that he had gone to the auction out of costume.

Raven had to admit that it would have been hilarious, though she'd never conceded that to Beast Boy. But really, Batman at an auction was almost as absurd as Batman and Robin teaming up with Scooby Doo, or Batman wearing a bright blue cap and going out in Gotham in broad daylight.

Utterly ridiculous.

Raven opened her eyes to check on Oz, and, oddly, saw him shutting the door to his prison and going back inside to sit down, a Pepsi in his hand...

That was really odd.

"Were you just outside the prison?" she asked him.

"What? You think you could hold me against my will, my dear?" He smirked when Raven cringed at that form of address. "I'm only staying in here to make it convenient for you all, now that my cover has been blown and all. By the way, why aren't you out fighting Spectre and that crazy guy with everyone else?"

"Don't you know who the Spectre is?" Raven asked pointedly.

"Ah. Demon thing. Well, I hope the rest of the Titans can stop that thing before Spectre causes a panic."

Raven pondered this for a second, and looked deep within both Oz's words, and into the shallow pool she could access of his mind. And with what she could gleam, the hidden agitation with Emmanuel that she could sense under the surface, she knew it had to be true...

"He's you, isn't he." Raven said at last.

"Excuse me?" Oz said.

"Emmanuel is you. The you from _this_ world. The person you would be if you'd lived his life."

"I would contend that people chose who they are, but from my experience, I'm starting to wonder if that's a load of bullocks."

"What's with the Britishisms?" Raven asked.

"One of my authors is from England," he explained, and then glanced over in anticipation of the fourth wall collapsing. It did so promptly. "So you've figured it out, then."

Raven nodded. "How else could you not know us but still KNOW us so well? Besides, with Ragnarök here, nothing really surprises me anymore."

"I surprised you," he said. "You still have that shard I gave you?"

Raven nodded, removing the metallic object from a small pouch on her belt. "What is it?"  
Oz had given the metallic object to her while the other Titans were away, some on Tamaran, some patrolling the city. She'd been alone, and he had sneaked into the Tower and handed her the object that he said could beat her father.

"A gift. Something I think you'll need to take down Trigon."

"There is a lot of power in this thing," Raven said. "Where did you get it."

Oz smirked. "Blood will tell... if you ask," he said cryptically. Raven thought a moment, and took his meaning. "Your blood or my blood?"

"This one is from my blood," he said. "There might be one in your blood too."

"Enough with the cryptic speak," Raven insisted. "What is your real name and why are you here?" She pressed her mental weight into the words, trying to get Oz to spill the proverbial beans.

But he resisted. "I told you, I don't know why I'm hear. I was with my world's Raven one minute, and the next, I was in a swamp in this world's Florida."

"Where YOUR Jump City is," Raven realized. "So, you do know me. The other me."

Oz nodded. Raven could tell he was struggling to keep a straight face when he said, "Very well."

What **_that _**meant, Raven wisely decided she did not want to know.

**oooo**

"Dust storm!" Ragnarök shouted, blasting a tornado of dust into the air between Spectre and Emmanuel. "Stop it!" Suddenly, the could became a blindfold, wrapping around the Spectre's gargantuan face and preventing him from seeing where he was going.

For all of five seconds, upon which time the rock shattered, super-heated by the power from Spectre's burning eyes.

"Try this on for size!" Cyborg screamed, angry that their efforts were still proving futile. Missiles from his shoulders launched up and exploded into an opaque, stick goo that would blind and hopefully restrict the Spectre...

Well, at least that was what would have happened, if Spectre hadn't blasted the missiles out of the sky with his eyes, the rockets crumbling to dust in the air.

"Crud," Victor said. "Beast Boy, you have anything?"

"I'm exhausted. None of my animal forms can even touch him. This is one bad dude!"

Cyborg glared down at Rag. "Well, leader, start trying to LEAD us!"

"I'm as out of ideas as you are!" he shot back. Collin glanced over his shoulder and saw that Robin and Emmanuel were still going at it, Robin staying at close range to avoid another grenade, no doubt. Where Starfire was, Rag didn't know.

Cyborg had just found out, though.

"Beast Boy!" he heard Cyborg bark. "Get Kori home so Raven can heal her. You've done all you can."

"You've found Kori?" Collin gasped. "Thank God!"

"Um, if you haven't noticed, talk about irony," Cyborg said, thumbing towards the Spectre.

Collin glared at him. "That gives me an idea!"

Collin ran over, no earth moving, his armor barely activated, and looked straight up at the Spectre. "Hey! You! Spectre!" Collin yelled. "Hold on a minute!"

"Speak," Spectre said.

"I know you're big on killing things that are evil and all," he stammered, "but um..." Worry swelled up inside him, and he hesitated.

"Speak," Spectre repeated.

"Well, you know, God is love too right? I mean He isn't all about Vengeance and Judgment, right?" Collin felt his face twist into the most nervous smile ever, and wanted to kick himself for it. This was no time to be nervous! He was only staring down the most powerful being on the planet! No sweat, right?

No comment.

Spectre considered this a moment. Then he gave Collin a glare that said the following:

_Do I LOOK like the Spirit of God's LOVE to you? _With the burning white eyes, the muscular chalk-white body, green cape, and stone face, Collin had to admit to himself that the Spectre didn't.

Spectre walked on, growing ever closer to his target...

"Well, it was worth a shot," Ragnarök said.

Cyborg, however, felt that 'nice going!' was more appropriate.

**oooo**

_**K'TINK**_

_**  
K'TANK**_

The clash of Robin's special bo-staff given to him by the True Master against Emmanuel's improved Staff of Judgment was a welcome change to all the explosions and carnage, and mostly drowned out the sirens and the booming voice of Spectre.

Mostly.

Robin back flipped away from slash of the Staff's blade end and then dived on Emmanuel, wrestling him to the ground, holding his arms away as the two struggled, eventually rolling off the building.

Robin grabbed onto railing of a fire escape and hanged on, but Emmanuel didn't have that opportunity, as Robin stomped his face forcing the two apart. Robin twisted around and grabbed the rail with his other hand as well, and pulled himself up, and turned around in time to see the falling Manny lash out one of those electric tendrils from his hand and grab hold of the side of the building and pull himself in.

"Marvel is gonna sue," Robin thought, jumping up onto the roof, rubbing his aching arms. Then Emmanuel threw himself back up onto the roof and began attacking again, so Robin buried his pain and defended, soon locked in another life and death fight with the madman. And part of him began to hope the Spectre got there soon and just finished him off.

**oooo**

"He's still going for Emmanuel!" Collin yelled at Cyborg. "What now?"

"I don't know!" blurted Cyborg. "Dance a jig, tell him a joke, ANYTHING that will distract him."

"Why me?"

Cyborg shrugged. "You're the leader of this mission."

Ragnarök nodded. "Right. Well, put yourself between me and Robin and try and make a smokescreen or something."

"Okay, if you think it will help," Cyborg sighed. Truly, he was beginning to think it was a lost cause, that, Spectre would get there and vaporize the psycho and there was nothing the Titans could do about it.

But that didn't mean they weren't going to try! Cyborg hurled himself across the building, his gears and system indicators loudly protesting this action. He ignored them and set himself up, and watched as Collin jumped in between them and Spectre, making a large column of rock to stand on so that he could talk to the Spectre face-to-face.

"Hey, Spectre! Stop for a minute!" Ragnarök blurted. "I... I have a riddle for you."

"Speak," Spectre said, slowing but not stopping. Ragnarök gave his moving platform legs that began walking to match Spectre's pace.

"Okay. What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its radius?" It was a Halloween Joke that Beast Boy had been telling almost not stop all month to everyone who would listen, Cyborg observed.

Spectre said nothing, but gave a shrug as if baffled by the riddle.

Rag breathed in deep, and let loose the punch line. "You get PUMPKIN _PI_!" he said.

The Spectre stopped walking...

Then he spoke again. "Amusing, though I have heard many better jokes." Then he continued on as if nothing had happened.

Ragnarök launched himself from his platform and landed in front of Cyborg. "Well, I'm all out of ideas. You think you can use that smoke screen?"

Cyborg sighed. These were his last pair of non-lethal rockets; he'd have to order more when he got back to the tower, but it had to be done, he supposed. Firing them into the air, Cyborg let out a half-hearted 'Boo-yah'...

The rockets exploded, making the smoke screen appear, but Spectre blinked and it all fell to the earth, the particles fused together so that it weighed too much to stay airborne.

"Last line?" Rag asked.

"Last line," Cyborg said. "Unless BB comes swooping in to the rescue."

"He's supposed to be taking Kori home so Raven can heal her."

"Wonderful," Cyborg said, firing his sonic cannon in Spectre's general direction. It, predictably, had no effect whatsoever.

**oooo**

_Please stop this madness, Emmanuel! _The Old Voice screamed within the madman's head._ You're going to get us killed!_

"No mortal can kill me!" Emmanuel blurted at both Robin and his former self.

_That THING over there definitely is NOT mortal! _The Old Voice retorted,_ and don't tell me you didn't see it, because we share the same eyes!_

Emmanuel glanced over at the incoming phantom, the massive green harbinger. It... it was just a trick. It had to be, right? "That... thing... it is nothing more than an illusion of the demon lord Mysterio!"

"WRONG!" Robin said, kicking him in the face.

_The Titan is right, Manny. That thing is coming to KILL us and it is all too real!_

"Nothing will stop him from hunting you," Robin said. "Stand down and I'll get you out of here."

"NEVER!" bellowed Emmanuel, a burst of wind exploding around him and forcing Robin back. And then, Robin gasped as Emmanuel did something he had never, in his wildest dreams expected. Emmanuel_ charged_ at the Spectre.

He leapt at the spirit, blasting with his Staff and cursing at him. But the Spectre just batted them aside and raised his hand to strike at Emmanuel, when suddenly, Ragnarök, thrown by Cyborg, slammed feet first into Emmanuel's chest, driving him backwards, back to the rooftop where Robin was. Robin leaped forward to subdue him, but Emmanuel shot up to his feet at the last minute, causing the debilitating blow Robin had planned to turn into an unbalancing strike to Emmanuel's knee, knocking the madman backwards, towards the edge of the building where he tripped and fell.

Manny tried to lash out with his tendrils, but suddenly, the Spectre pointed and the electric energy whips that the demon had granted Emmanuel burst into flames, like a fuse, running up their length into his hands and causing him pain. Emmanuel grabbed onto the ledge with his charred hand, and hurled himself up with his enhanced strength.

But then the Spectre caused his Staff to explode...

The great Spirit of Vengeance seemed to roll up like a scroll, condensing back down to near-human size, and pulsating a power that kept the Titans away from him and Emmanuel.

Manny punched at the Spectre, but the Spectre grabbed both hands and in a flash, turned them to asbestos, arsenic, and mercury, and broke them off. Manny screamed in pain as his hands, now toxic substances, exploded into debris.

_Good bye, world, and good riddance! _The Old Voice thought. He had suffered far too long... _Too bad I have to die along with you, monster._

In the ally bellow, a trashcan began to transform, molding itself into a massive spike, and then, Spectre finished his job. With but a flick of his wrist, Emmanuel was blasted backwards off, plummeting the five stories till the spike rammed through his chest, blood falling on the ground bellow as his heart was pierced. The spike ran through him three feet before the friction stopped him.

Emmanuel's head lolled back, and his eyes gave one last look of defiance, and then, finally...

_Helplessness_. Then he was gone.

The Titans could do nothing but stand and watch as their mission ended, not exactly a failure, but not satisfying either. For not only had Emmanuel's threat to society been lifted, but his innocent passenger had been destroyed as well.

Such was the tragedy of such an depraved insanity as this one.

Collin agreed, but also didn't know when to keep his mouth shut. He landed next to Spectre, and actually began _yelling_ at him. "Well, THANKS A LOT, Mr. High-and-Mighty!" Ragnarök staired into the Spectre's burning eyes, and had to look away. "Thanks you you and your 'judge first, kill second, forgive later' attitude, we now have a young man dead, and an innocent victim of YOUR self-righteous, right-wing holier-than-thou villain slaying! What is your problem!"

The Spectre had heard enough, and his eyes flashed with a pure rage, and suddenly, the world around Ragnarök went to hell... Fires billowed up all around him, screams and moans echoed throughout his years, and he found himself standing on a massive pillar mde of HUMAN BONE in the middle of a vast lake of fire.

"FOOLISH MORTAL!" Spectre bellowed, having grown again to his full size, bearing down on Rag, who was now cowering atop the pillar. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF THE HEAVENLY THINGS WHICH YOU QUESTION! WHO ARE YOU TO DISPUTE THE WISDOM OF THE ALMIGHTY, ALL KNOWING VOICE THAT LEADS ME?"

Ragnarök stammered something stupidly, and then, he found himself unable to look away from Spectre's eyes... those horrible burning eyes. And in an instant, he saw it all: the horrors of the Holocaust, the death fields of Cambodia, the slaughter of peoples in the name of God, in the name of America, in the name of convenience... Graves by the dozens, souls by the millions, all filtering through Collin's mind in an instant, a mere fraction of the sum of human sin, but scarring nonetheless...

And when it was over, Rag sat on the ground in a fetal position, shaking, mumbling, and praying...

"It is over," Spectre said calmly. "Judgment has been carried out." And just as quickly as he had arrived, he vanished. Jump City was safe now, once again.

**oooo**

Somewhere far away, perhaps not a physical place, but a place nonetheless, the Old Voice found himself... moving... in control of his body...

"W..Where am I?" He said fearfully. "I should be... dead.."

All he could see was black, and his hands. And he realized that he was on both them, and his knees, and soon his sense of gravity began to return as he slowly stood up, and found himself staring into the face of a beautiful, pale-skinned young woman, dressed in gothic chic and wearing an Egyptian cross—the ankh, symbol of death—around her neck...

"Who... are you?"

"I'm Death," the woman said cheerfully. "Nice to meet you."

"You're Death?" he asked, stupefied. "Wh...Where is Emmanuel."

"I sent him on down while you were still asleep," Death explained casually. "He's not your concern anymore."

"Does... this mean I'm dead too?"

"Yeah," said Death, "that is typically what happens when you get run through with a glass spike."

"Oh," the Old Voice hung his head sadly.

"Is there a problem? I thought you wanted to be rid of that guy, even if it killed you."

"I did... I do. It's just a bit disappointing."

"Ah, I suppose it would be. Well, actually, I have been authorized to do you a favor. Normally, this doesn't' happen, but you're one of those rare cases."

Death turned around and sat down at a desk that the Old Voice hadn't noticed before, and began typing on something...

"A laptop computer?"

Death nodded. "I'm only using it because my desktop is busy running a program to calculate the approximate monetary value of a human soul," she said absently.

Old Voice goggled. "Busy?"

"Yeah. It's about sixty percent done."

"How long has it been running?"

Death shrugged. "About fifteen, maybe sixteen thousand years. It is made a bit more difficult every time the planet's primary currency changes."

"I see."

What ever was on the screen changed, and then Death smiled, turning around. "I think I have something here that you might be interested in... You'll have to be reincarnated, but..."

"Reincarnated?"

"Yeah. It's rare, but in your case, it's your best bet at not getting sent on to the afterlife at the moment."

"Okay..." the Old Voice thought a moment. "Fine. Is there a catch?"

Death gave a warm, but slightly sadistic smile. "You might say that." She motioned for him to come look at the screen, and he did so.

"Whoa!" was all that he could say.

**oooo**

That evening, Raven lay in her bed, thinking about the day. It hadn't gone the best; Emmanuel had died, taking whoever he used to be with him. They had identified the body using dental records, as the son of some business man from Los Angeles. Raven didn't pay much attention to that, though.

Spectre had left, thankfully. Still, Raven had spent most of the day with 'Oz', which had unnerved her quite a bit, even after getting him to admit where was really from.

Something she couldn't name, though, was bothering her, a nagging thought. Tomorrow would be October 31st ... Halloween. It was almost a sense that the Spectre...

Suddenly, Raven's body was wracked with pain, and all her marks, all the inscriptions that Slade had writ on her body glowed a bright, blood red, he father's evil washing over her... Tomorrow...

Halloween...

And suddenly, horror filled Raven's soul as she realized what she was feeling. In an instant, she no longer suspected, but she KNEW...

_The Spectre had missed his **REAL** target...! _

If only he had stayed one day longer...

* * *

**Author's Note**: Okay, if you STILL don't know who Oz is, you obviously haven't read anything of Legend Maker's. If you HAVE and still don't know who he is, then I will see about getting you a brain for Christmas. (No offense :P). 

Go read her stuff as soon as you get done here!

And sorry about the absurd length of this chapter. I had a lot to say and I refuse to extend this arc beyond three chapters.


	10. Trigon: Unleashed

Because of events beyond my control, this was a long time in coming. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

**Colors  
Chapter Ten  
**

From the journal of Raven, daughter of Trigon the Terrible, Teen Titan.

* * *

_Today is the day. _

_Friday, October 31st, 2008. Halloween._

_The end of the world._

_I can feel it in the air, in my bones. The runes that Slade wrote onto me burn. They are crying out to him, to my father. Trigon is coming, and when he arrives, mortal life will surrender to his power. When I become the portal, I expect that my body will be destroyed. _

_  
My friends deserve to know, and I hope to make this, their and my own last day, the best day possible. But there is one other who deserves to know something as well. He knows of my hatred of my father. He won't take it as well, but I have to tell him. I owe him that much._

_Why am I writing this? I know my father won't settle for Earth. He'll send out his minions to conquer the entire cosmos. People will fight back, and perhaps some day, someone will come destroy him, someone from a far-away world. Perhaps you are one of those liberators, reading this now._

_Earth may be long gone by the time my father is defeated. If he ever is, though I hope we are celebrating with you rather than being morned by you when you find this._

_This leaves just one loose end. The one who calls himself Oz. He's a wild card, not from this universe, and apparently, from one that where Trigon has already been destroyed. He relayed to me cryptically that the sorcerer Jason Blood had a weapon that could defeat Trigon. He gave me a piece of the same weapon from his own world. I've entrusted the shard that Oz gave me to Ragnarök, and told him only this: to use it when he was sure it was the right time, that he'd know when that was. He was confused at first, but I was trying to show him that I trust him. I don't know if he took my meaning or just took what I gave him because of my seniority. It doesn't matter. Not as long as he uses it wisely._

_Unfortunately, I don't have time to retrieve the sword from the Blood of this world now. I gambled with time and lost._

_I suspect now... No. I KNOW that the Spectre was sent here to destroy Trigon, and that the humanity left in him made a hasty decision and left before that job was finished. Even the greatest of mortals make mistakes, if Spectre can be called mortal._

_I should go now. Trevor won't want to hear what I have to tell him, but I owe him the truth; it's all I have left to give him at this point..._

**oooo**

The day after Emmanuel's death was quiet so far. The cops typically could handle Halloween pranks, and supervillains feared to be out now that the Spectre's presence was known throughout the town.

Beast Boy and Collin had spent most of the morning playing Game Station, while Cyborg worked on something in his room/laboratory. Starfire was staying with Robin, now, as the Boy Wonder added data on both Emmanuel and Oz into the computer, ignoring the constant ping of his public email. (Most of the emails he got were utterly devoid of intelligent thought and made Robin very weary about the future of humanity.)

"Starfire," he said after a few minutes without words between them. "You seem quiet today. What's up?"

"I am merely tired. I had a long night."

Robin looked back at her. She was looking no worse for the wear after what had happened yesterday. Raven had stabilized her and stopped the bleeding, and Collin had fixed her up with the White Catalyst as soon as he returned.

When asked by Beast Boy why he didn't just carry it with him all the time, Collin had replied that he didn't want to give anyone a false sense of security and end up getting themselves killed, and Robin, begrudgingly, was forced to agree with him.

"You took a lot of damage yesterday. I'm glad you're feeling better. Isn't there anything you want to do, though? I mean it's Halloween. We could go have some fun tonight. Show up in costume at a party or something."

Starfire smiled at that. "And eat your earth candy till our teeth fall out of our dibtars!"

Robin smirked. "Something like that."

"That would be _most_ wonderful!"

"It's a date then," Robin said. "As soon as I finish this work. And make sure that our prisoner is secure."

Starfire nodded somberly. "He spent most of the night writing in his journal or sleeping. He does not seem to me to be hostile towards us."

Robin nodded. Because of the healing effects of the White Catalyst, Starfire had been unable to sleep, and had therefore watched Oz all night. "No he doesn't. But that really isn't something you should worry about. I'll handle this. Even if I have to call Batman and see what he thinks should be done. You probably ought to get some sleep before tonight, though."

Nodding slightly, but still seemingly distracted, distant, Starfire got off the bed and hovered out of the room. Robin went back to typing, his files on Emmanuel almost complete.

"Status," he read aloud. "...deceased."

Robin closed the files, shut down the computer, and left his room. There was no further reason to pursue this. Emmanuel's death was unfortunate, at least for his other half, but at the same time, dead criminals were the easiest to deal with.

The living, on the other hand, could be more of a problem...

**oooo**

"Did Luthor send you?" Robin asked Oz, trying to get at least SOMETHING from the stalker. "Or Brainiac? Brainiac is behind everything."

"I told you, I'm not part of some super villain's evil plot. I came to this place by accident."

"What place? Jump City? The United States? Earth?" Robin didn't THINK he was an alien, but with the strange abilities that Tara had described him using during her fight with him, Robin could never be certain.

Oz leaned back on his cot, still in his cell behind the transparent barrier of the prison. "I suppose you could say," he said with a smirk, "that I have more in common with your newest Titan friend that I'm wont to admit."

"What does that mean? You possess an alien suit of cybernetic armor?"

"No," Collin realized out loud. "You are from another universe, aren't you. That's how you know so much about all the other Titans, and that's why you haven't been able to spill out my life secrets. You come from another place where I don't exist, at least not in this form."

"Well, you're smarter than I gave you credit for," Oz said. "And I really didn't give you much to begin with, considering some of the things I've heard you say."

Ragnarök flashed a look of annoyance and confusion, when Oz removed a tape recorder from his pocket, and pressed a small button. Before anyone could say anything, it played a recording of Collin from a few weeks earlier:

_Bill Clinton was the man. I don't get why conservatives always want to glomp th e guy. I mean he balanced the budget, cut overspending on the military, and there were no major wars in his presidency..._

Oz clicked the stop button on his recorder and smirked.  
"That only proves you've been spying on us longer than we've known," Collin said. "It's not a crime or an indication of stupidity to have a political opinion."

"Oi," Oz shook his head. "No, it's not, but some opinions ought to be. Crimes, I mean."

"Wonderful," Collin said. "We have a neo-con stalker from another dimension who thinks I'm stupid because of my politics."

"More than that," Robin said. "He seems to think we 'aren't ready' for something. Tell us, then, Oz, what is so bad that is coming that we can't handle?"

"Haven't you been paying attention to Raven? Hello? End of the world, Trigon the Terrible."

Robin sat down. "As a matter of fact, we have been preparing for him. You seem to think we're a bunch of—"

"Preparing how?" Oz interrupted. "I see no weapons, no consulting people who'd know how to stop him."

"Raven has been looking into that," Robin said.

"No she hasn't," Oz replied. "You all have been too stupid to see it, but Raven has been spending these nights you _thought_ she was looking for a way to stop Trigon with a meta-human hating newspaper columnist called Trevor Washington."

Beast Boy, who had been listening silently in the corner while polishing his moped, spoke up now. "You mean that guy who wrote that the Titans were one day going to lord over the rest of the city from the tower if the mayor continued to sanction us?"

"Yeah, that's the guy." Oz said.

"And what, pray tell, has Raven been doing with this columnist?" Robin asked.

Oz got up and walked over to the barrier as if to intimidate—he was about two inches taller than Robin—and looked at him through the mask. "Normal date stuff. They've been eating together, seeing movies. Hanging out in bars with fake ID's"

"That's a lie!" Beast Boy blurted, throwing his polishing rag down and going over to the barrier. "Raven would never do that."

"I have photos back at my place," Oz said, "If you want to see them."

"If you think for a minute that we're letting you get out of here, then think again," Robin said.

"I've been staying in here mostly for your convenience," Oz said. "You think you're holding me here? Hah! I could escape in a heartbeat, but I'm trying to warn you. BE READY."

"We ARE READY." Robin shot back. Though, even though he didn't really believe what Oz had said of Raven, it _had_ shaken his confidence a bit. And it would explain some of the oddities of Raven's behavior as of late.

"Tell me," Oz said. "Have you ever stared down a homicidal cyborg maniac with a katana and a grudge against 'worthless' people who became self-styled god and destroyed half the town? Have you ever fought a teenager who could alter the nature of reality at his whim or had civilians hanging on crosses outside your town? Have you ever faced an insane sorceress so powerful that magic is literally her plaything—who could turn a town to powder with a flick of the wrist? Have you?"

Robin didn't say anything.

Collin, however, was not so judicious. "Um, technically we have fought the second thing on that list... minus the crosses."

"You mean this 'Delirium' that I somehow slept through?"

"You were at the bottom of Jump City bay as a block of ammonium nitrate, most likely," Collin said.

Oz blinked at this. "That explains the smell of my clothes the day you got back from space. But that's besides the point."

"Being?" Robin asked.

"The point is that your team hasn't been properly tempered. Trigon is an arch-demon of the highest order, a Devil Lord who can transmute the Earth itself into a barren wasteland of fire and ash, and then conquer the cosmos with its harvested souls. We're talking about a being who's conquered billions of planets and wold give Lucifer pause. Are you ready to handle something like that?"

"We'll see." Robin said.

"No! There is no we'll see! You have to be ready! Because if you aren't, the world will END! This is not a VIDEO GAME and you WON'T get second tries or extra lives! This is LIFE AND DEATH."

Beast Boy bristled. "Dude, we're not the Justice League."

Oz glared at him, an unsettling glare that felt like it cut into Beast Boy's very soul. "You're going to have to be. Until you've seen the streets run with blood, you won't know what 'ready for anything' means."

Beast Boy stepped back. "And I thought_ Raven_ was creepy."

"Just another way of denying the truth. If Raven' creeps you out, then you DON'T KNOW what 'creepy' is." Oz said. "I know you might think I'm insane, Gar, but do you think I'm a _liar?"_

Gar shook his head.

"Then _trust _me."

"Trust you with what?" Robin said. "My team?"

"That would be a start. In fact, I'd prefer it if you gave me command in the fight against Trigon. On the other hand, I wonder if I should really interfere. I've done too much as it is."

"You're out of your mind then. You think you can just walk in, spout some doomsday gibberish, and expect us to prostrate ourselves before you? Screw you. We'll show you just how ready for this we are."

"Ready for hell? Hell is just a word. Reality is FAR, FAR, worse." Oz turned around, and seemed to contemplate something. "You want to see how wrong you are? How your arrogance has blinded you?"

Robin whirled around too, his anger at Oz growing. Who was he to barge in and tell him how to run his own team? He wished Kori was there to temper him, or he feared he'd do something that he would regret...

"Computer," Oz suddenly said, sending a jolt of ice through Robin's gut, "Clearance _Menville, Peyton, Cipes_. Destroy the Teen Titans."

_Override confirmed, the computer voice said. Commencing termination._

"WHAT!" Robin blurted, spinning back around to Oz. "How did you..."

Then, the request he'd made sank in. "Computer! Clearance, _Strong, Walch, Johnson! _Stand defenses down! Repeat, stand down!"

"West, Ward, Gorshin." Oz said evenly, "Destroy them."

"Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney!" Robin returned. "Stand down!"

"Conroy, Romano, Bale!" Oz blurted. "Destroy."

"Wolfman, Perez, Johns!" Robin said frantically. "Cease and desist!"

"Finger, Kane, Miller!" Oz said, causing the guns to spin back towards the Titans.

"Computer! Robin blurted. "DESTROY THE INTRUDER. Final override, Kasem, Lester, Valencia!"

_Final Override confirmed. Commencing destruction._

"On second thought," Robin said. "Stand down and deactivate for the next five hours."

_Confirmed._

"How did you do that?" Robin asked him, his voice a low growl.

"Your security here is pathetic. I simply sneaked into the tower while you were away in space and gave myself some security overrides. Now if I, a guy with only moderate computer skills, can do that, what could I have done if I had been a super villain? Bombs under your beds? Slitting your throats in your sleep? I repeat my warning. Be. Ready."

And so, silence reigned in the interrogation room.

**oooo**

On the other side of Jump City, a crowd began to clear out of a theatre. Trevor having just seen _Charlie's Angels 3_ and being disappointed by the sheer awfulness of it, left in a bad mood. This improved somewhat, however, when he saw Rachel standing outside the theatre.

What was odd was that she was looking directly at him, and with a very odd expression on her face. How she had found him, generally at the theatre, and specifically in the crowd, was running circles around his mind as she approached.

Trevor moved through the crowd and finally got close enough to be heard. "What's going on Rachel? How did you find me here?"

Rachel hung her head slightly, her chin falling on the edge of her blouse, which oddly seemed not to notice it had been touched. "Trevor, we need to talk."

"Is something wrong? Oh, no, please don't tell me your dad found out."

"He's known all along. He just couldn't do anything about it till today," Rachel said. "That's not why I'm here."

"What's wrong then? You're dad has forbid you to see me?"

The two started walking, now down a much less crowed side street, the sidewalk narrower but less cluttered. The shops here were mostly novelty stores, and didn't have many customers.

"I've not been telling you the whole truth about me. Or my dad..."

Trevor stopped. "Rachel..."

"I need you to know this," she said. "I really do care about you. I wanted your company, and enjoyed it. But if you knew... if you knew who I really am, then you'd have nothing to do with me."

"What are you talking about, Rachel?" Trevor's face was a twisted mess of emotions, he could feel it, as could he feel the dread and confusion in his stomach. What was this? Did she have another boyfriend? Was she pregnant? Married? The thoughts when swimming through his mind.

Then she stepped, back, reached down to her fingers, and removed her mood rings.

And then, her skin and clothes literally slid off her body... and revealed something entirely different. Black shadows pulled themselves around her, forming a blue cloak around her grey skin and black leotard...

She was a Teen Titan...

Trevor stood there, anger filling his mind. He tried to push it away, but then confusion reigned in its stead. And guilt, and shame, for how he had spoken of the Titans. Then more anger..

"You... You're..."

"My name is Raven," she said. "Rachel Roth, the person you thought you knew... she doesn't exist. I made her up because I was trying to escape who I am. I was trying to be normal for a change."

That hit him like a jolt, and Trevor realized that in some small part of his mind, he had been holding out the hope that this was some sort of trick, or that the Titan was impersonating Rachel to get near Trevor... or anything that would let him not face the truth that seemed to be playing out before him...

"I'm sorry," she said. And he could tell she meant it. But that didn't make the hurt go away.

"You've been lying to me the whole time?"

"And I hated to, Trevor, believe me, I hated to. But you were the only one I could talk to about... about who my father is."

"Your father?"

"My father is... he's a demon. A devil. Literally. And he's coming today—this is the end of the world."

After a long silence, Trevor turned around. "What am I supposed to say to _that_?"

Raven said nothing. "I guess we're no longer a couple." Even through her normally unshakable demeanor, Raven's voice sounded like it was on the verge of bending. Not breaking, but bending.

"No, Raven, we're not. I'm not sure we ever were. I thought I really cared for you, but that person doesn't really exist."

Raven's voice fell low, as if she was looking at the ground, and Trevor turned to see that indeed, she was. "I lied to you about my name, and about where I came from. But I was never false around you. If you can't accept me because I'm one of your hated metahumans, then you really aren't worth my time."

"You're just saying that," Trevor said accusingly. "You know that it's not that you're a Titan. You could be Wonder Woman for all I care—it's that you lied to me, Rachel... Raven. Whoever you are."

"Are you sure that's it?" Raven asked. Man, she was strong, Trevor mused. She hadn't shed a tear. Her face was hurt, but her demeanor was cold. Trevor oddly found himself admiring that before reality sank back in.

"No, really, I'm not. Maybe I _am_ just a lonely bigot. I need some time to think. If the world doesn't end, maybe I'll calm down."

Trevor started to leave, when Raven said, "Thank you."

Trevor glanced back, and said, somewhat bitterly, "For what?"

"For being honest, at least. About your feelings."

Trevor nodded, and continued around the corner. This was... upsetting, disappointing. To think, that HE of all people would find himself dating a metahuman! How could she have just up and lied to him like that? But was it just the betrayal? After all, metahumans were law-breakers, most of them, no matter which side they fought on.

And with their power, they could easily enslave the earth, and had in some parallel worlds, or so Trevor had read. So why now did his opinions make him feel so friggin' _guilty._ Just because he had expressed them to his _girlfriend_ of all people. He couldn't have known she wasn't who she said she was...

As he rounded the corner the whole city suddenly went black, and Trevor looked up to see that the sun was completely eclipsed.

"What the blazes?" he said. "There's not supposed to be an eclipse today." He remembered that there had been one back in August, but it was scheduled and completely ordinary.

Then he saw four red lights in the sky, which was odd, as they didn't seem to be connected to anything... then he looked closer, and he saw it... they were EYES!

And with that realization, Trevor Washington's world suddenly went white...

**oooo**

Raven had watched Trevor go around the corner with a growing, hollow pain in her chest. She had known from the beginning it would come to this, but... part of her wanted to rebel, to reach out and jerk Trevor close and not let him go.

Foolish thoughts, to be sure. What had happened to her cold demeanor, her unshakable emotional deadness? Had her control eroded so far?

Raven turned to go, when suddenly, the sky went dark at noon. Raven glanced up... and saw that the sun was eclipsed. No! It couldn't be happening! She hadn't gotten to speak to her friends! She hadn't gotten to make this day their best!

Then, she heard the explosion, behind her, and all those thoughts vanished. Only one thing remained. "Trevor!"

Raven darted around the corner, chasing after Trevor, hoping she wasn't too late... By the time she got to him, panic and chaos reigned on the street where the blast had happened. What had caused it was still unclear, but Raven found Trevor almost immediately, staggering to his feet on the opposite side of the street from her, dazed, and perhaps injured from the explosion. It didn't seem to be critical.

Then, through the smoke and chaos and screams, Raven saw him...

Slade. He stood on the roof of the shop that Trevor was in front of, looking down with his piercing eye, the mark of Scath burning on his mask. And then he looked down at Trevor, and horror filled her.

"Don't touch him!" She blurted, raising her hands to strike.. but then, pain wracked her body, as did weakness, and Raven collapsed, the runes on her skin glowing with evil red light.

"I think the things I do or don't do aren't for you to decide, child," Slade said, jumping off the building and grabbing Trevor in a choke hold. Then he held out his hand and a sword materialized in it, a red burning thing of pure evil."You are merely a pawn in your father's game. Insignificant. Worthless. Just like your friend."

And what Slade did next made 'hot knife through butter' sound like a euphemism for difficulty, cutting through Trevor's midsection as if it wasn't even there, his demon blade barely making a sound. Slade held onto Trevor's top half by his hair.

"_Tick, tock_, Raven. Your time's run out." Then he hurled Trevor at her, Raven catching the young man's torso, her eyes filling with horror and her stomach with disgust... and then she looked into Trevor's eyes, his plea strong and clear, but he could barely vocalize it...

"Ra...chel.."

Those were his last words... Raven felt the life slide from him even as guilt and pain poured over her. It was all her fault. For daring to love a mortal, for daring to defy her father, Trigon had sent his pawn, that wretched, wretched man called Slade to kill the one person that did not know the risk, did not know the chance he was taking loving the girl Rachel Roth. The one person who was defenseless, and whose demise she was defenseless against.

Trevor...

"No..."

And with that, Raven began to cry, her tears falling and vaporizing on the asphalt, even as she began to glow, the runes becoming the focal points of hairline fissures erupting all over her body.

Then Slade intruded into her pain, and made it seem all the more hopeless.

"Give it up, Raven. You can't win against your father. You can't fight your destiny. Go ahead. Recite the prophecy. Surely the peace of oblivion would be better than this."

"Monster!" Raven hissed.

"Trigon will win, either way," Slade said. "You're only prolonging the inevitable."

Raven cursed at Slade, who backed up, but did not dare hurt the Gem. "Your choice. Trigon wins after you suffer. Or Trigon wins when you say a few simple words."

Raven wanted to tell Slade then and there how much she loathed him, how much, more than anything, that she wanted Slade to feel the full force, the brunt of all the vitriol she had for him. But all that came out was a dull whimper.

Falling on her back, and staring up at the sky, Raven began to weep uncontrollably. She could feel her emotive powers radiating out, tearing up the streets and sidewalks, but she couldn't help it. What hope had she left? Her friends would die, all of Oz's planning would come to naught. What could be done now?

And then, as if an omen from heaven, a small silver flash caught Raven's eye... a ship entering the atmosphere...

Could it be? Raven's powers were now too far gone, too occupied with her father's work to sense who was on the ship, but it didn't matter. Because those Justice Leaguers, whoever they were, were the planet's only hope. And Raven cast her father's spell, but mixed it subtly with her own...

A white line of power shot into the sky, and over took the craft. Protection from her father's evil. Now... for oblivion.

"_The Gem was born of evil's fire_..." Raven started. "_The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim..._" The runes on her body burst off and hovered in the hair around her... "_he comes to sire._.." The runes span around her in a torrent of red light, evil light...

"**_THE END OF ALL THINGS MORTAL!_**" Raven and Trigon said in unison.

And then, all went black for the devil's daughter.

**oooo**

The Javelin arced through the atmosphere, coming in over California and heading down towards the Metro Tower in Metropolis, some 2000 miles away. But then, something unexpected happened.

"Diana!" said John Stewart, Earth's current Green Lantern. "What IS that?" He pointed out of the cockpit to the white stream of light coming towards them...

"I don't know," replied Wonder Woman. "Evasive maneuvers..."

"Too late! It's bending TOWARDS us..."

Then it was there, washing over the space ship and permeating the beings of all the people on board. It was gone almost as soon as it had started, but John still had an odd tingling feeling over his whole body...

"Report," he said. "Does anybody know what happened?" John let Diana take the controls and went into the back, where Hawkgirl, Booster Gold, and Question were seated.

"It was some sort of magic field," the Hawkgirl Shayera Hol said.

"How do you know?"

Shayera held up her hand, her mace dangling by it's wrist strap. It was glowing red hot.

"Ah." Said John. Thanagarian Nth Metal disrupted the flow of magic; for it to be glowing red hot, there had to be some serious power in that wave.

"I don't feel much different," Booster Gold said. "Anything you're reading Skeets?"

The small robot hovering above Booster replied. "Negative. My sensors were never calibrated to detect magic, sir."

"Aw, nuts," Said Booster. "Well, I guess it was nothing. We all seem to be okay."

"Or perhaps the spell was preparation for something more sinister," said the Question. A conspiracy theorist, often considered a nut job, Question was kept on the League mostly because he rivaled Batman as a detective, and could hold his own in a fight too.

"Shoelaces are sinister to you," Hawkgirl said.

"Not the laces themselves. The plastic coating on their tips," Question corrected.

"Can we _not_ fight amongst ourselves for one minute?" John insisted.

"We weren't fighting," Hawkgirl said, "We were discussing."

"Whatever the case may be—" Diana said from the pilot's seat... Then she fell really silent with a half gasp.

"Diana! What's wrong!" Hawkgirl and John darted into the cockpit, followed by Booster and Question.

"Great Hera!" Diana blurted...

**oooo**

In the centre of Jump City, towering at least fifty stories tall, was a massive red demon.

Trigon the Terrible. The Eighth Devil.

"The World of Mortals today meets its end!" Trigon bellowed, and with a primordial growl, the world began to change...

**oooo**

The alarms in Titans Tower began to go off as soon as the explosion had rocked the down town shops, and all the Titans rushed to the windows in ops, just in time to see a massive ball of red-white power erupt from the middle of the city, a column of energy opening a portal into the pits of places never treaded by mortals, places too horrible to describe...

And what emerged from them was the realization of all their fears, the incarnation of an entire dimension's evil. Trigon stood. Robin pressed a button to locate Raven, and found nothing—their friend had been destroyed.

"No..." Beast Boy said. "This isn't real."

"It's dead real," Oz's voice was cold and harsh, and the Titans didn't even bother asking how he got out of his prison. "Well Titans, welcome to hell. What hell REALLY is. This planet is about to be twisted into Trigon's personal playground, a smoldering ruin of ash and lava. I wish I had time to enact my contingency plan. Now it's up to you. Is there _anything_ you did to prepare for this day?"

"We made a safe room for Raven. It's supposed to protect against dark magic," Cyborg said. "We used her books and everything."

"Then I suggest we all get into it, or we'll have our flesh turned into stone."

Robin nodded. "Follow me. Cyborg, get Kori!"

* * *

**Author's Note: **Sorry for all the melodrama. I'm not any good at romance. : ( 


	11. Trigon: Unhinged

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Eleven  
Trigon: Unhinged**

There was a great, terrible sound, followed by a deathly, awful silence, and during the middle of this sound, everything around the Titans glowed brightly. Then the world went utterly and completely black as the light and sound faded..

After a few moments, Robin was finally sure he wasn't dead himself, and began checking on his friends. "Is everyone okay?"

"I'm... alive, at least," said Oz. "Much to your annoyance, I'm sure."

"Present," said Kori.

"Yo. I'm still here," Cyborg piped in. "What was that?"

"My suit identified it as something similar to Delirium's powers, only pure evil and on a MASSIVE scale." This came from Ragnarök.

"Dude! Don't say things like that!" came Garfield's voice. "I'm allergic to pure evil."

"Beast Boy," Robin said. "This really isn't a time to be joking." Robin's mindset was switched into leader mode now, so he started giving orders. "Starfire, give us some light."

In a moment, a green glow filled the room, which was mostly undisturbed, save for the light fixture shaken from the ceiling. Robin gasped when he realized that it was now made entirely of rock instead of metal and glass.

"But a small example of what Trigon's power is capable of," said Oz upon seeing Robin's reaction. "Let's get out of here."

Robin nodded. "I'm still the leader here," he said. "Cyborg, knock the door down."

Cyborg did so, and the Titans stepped out into a brave new world. One made entirely of stone and lava and ash.

"Oh my..." Oz was dumbstruck. "The whole bay? The whole planet? How much of the world is like this?"

"I thought you'd faced him before!" Beast Boy said.

"I have! But it was never like this! His power was smaller; this corruption spread slowly. This makes no sense. Could Trigon be that much more powerful in this dimension?"

"You tell us," Rag said. "You're the 'expert' here." His tone was rather mocking, though not bitter.

"If things are different, if Trigon is more powerful here," Oz said solemnly, "then I don't know what we can possibly do to stop him. It nearly cost me and the Titans of my universe our lives."

The Titans made their way through the Tower, knocking down all the walls and doors that stood between them and the stairs, and eventually found their way to the roof. Saying Trigon was big and bad was one thing. Heck, Beast Boy and Cyborg had sort of seen him when they had gone into Raven's mind. There, 'Trigon' had only been a manifestation of Raven's rage, though.

Nothing in a million years could have prepared the Titans for the reality. The city was twisted into a mess of metal and rock; the bay was full of magma, the water gone. There was the stench of brimstone everywhere. And in the middle of the city, in all his dark, mad, evil 'glory' stood Trigon.

He was terrible to look at. Simultaneously regal and hideous by human aesthetic standards, the demon stood ten times as high as Titans Tower, his muscular blood-red body looming over all as if the true lord of the planet. What chance could the Titans have against something so terrible, so awful and awe-inspiring? Robin couldn't vocalize any of this, but Oz apparently saw the question in his face.

"There is a weapon that can defeat him—what I gave Raven won't do it, not here. He's too powerful. But there's a weapon in the possession of Jason Blood. If Starfire could take me there..."

"Out of the question," Robin said. "She and Cyborg are our heavy hitters, and we need all the help we can get."

"I'm going to get the only help you'll need." Oz replied.

"You can take the R-Cycle then," Robin said.

Oz arched an eyebrow. "How am I supposed to take the R-Cycle? Trigon's powers touched it too."

Robin reached into his belt and pulled out a small device. It was based on the same technology Chang used to compress the matter of his battle armor into his interface suit—the one he had been wearing when Ryand'r and Karas had come to Earth. Tim pressed a button on top, and threw it down.

Light blossomed and formed into a shape... the R-Cycle. "Not in this world."

"That's convenient," Oz said with genuine surprise in his voice. "We don't have this technology in my world."

Robin nodded. "Well, mark that down AFTER we've saved the earth. I'm letting you go only because you can't possibly make things worse, though, so this doesn't mean we're on good terms."

"Never have been, Tim," Oz replied cryptically. "Never have been."

**oooo**

Slade stood and watched as the gargantuan new ruler of the earth took his first steps on his new planet. "Does it please you, my liege?" Slade asked.

"It does indeed, Slade." Trigon's voice boomed loudly, causing the whole city to rumble.

"Now. I expect my reward. Return to me that which I lost." Slade knew he let a hint of his distrust and anger at Trigon creep into his voice, and he didn't care. Once Trigon had given him what he wanted, their 'friendship' would be terminated.

"In time, servant," Trigon said with a warning in his voice. "You would do well to learn patience."

Slade grimaced within his mask. He would have to wait it seemed. Wait for revenge, for justice. After what Trigon had done, Slade didn't care who killed Trigon. Only that the demon died a horrible, agonizing death, and that it be very soon. Even if it meant allying with the remainder of the Titans...

Hm? Movement. Slade looked down at Trigon's feet, and saw something stir, though obscured by the energies of the fading portal... it looked like...

Raven? But not Raven at all. She was a mere child, no older than ten! This was an odd development. Had the creation of the portal somehow not destroyed the girl? Had it rather reverted her to an earlier stage of her life?

Or was this merely some sort of illusion or machination of Trigon?

Slade observed...

The child struggled to her feet, whimpering in pain as the hot mess of stone and asphalt burned her skin.

"Wh...where am I?" she asked. "What happened?"

"Daughter!" Trigon smiled wickedly. "Welcome to our new home!"

The young Raven whimpered. "Home? You... you're Trigon, aren't you."

"Indeed," the demon said. With a gesture, a small bubble of fire appeared to encompass the little girl, and flew up till it hovered near Trigon's head. "I am your father, the ruler of the earth, **_TRIGON THE TERRIBLE!"_**

"You may have created me, but you're_ not_ my father!" Raven blurted. "You're just a big ugly devil! I hate you! You took my mother away!"

"Dear daughter," Raven said. "Your mother would but turn you against me--her and that witch Azar. But they... have been taken care of."

Suddenly, an utterly massive ball of green light slammed into Trigon's face and exploded. Slade followed the trajectory of the attack back to the square in front of Trigon, where he saw them...

The Titans were here, and Slade thought it a perfect time to make himself scarce.

**oooo**

"Release our friend!" Robin demanded even as Starfire's hands cooled, the remnants of the energy she used to form the massive starbolt fading away.

"I don't care how big you are!" Cyborg said. "You're going down."

"I'd have some sort of witty or cool banter to say here," said Collin started, "but I'm relatively new."

Beast Boy caught himself just staring at the Raven. "What have you done to her!" He demanded. And though Trigon ignored what everone else had said, he seemed somehow affected by Beast Boy's question.

"My dear daughter? I've done nothing. She did this to herself, willingly bringing me into the world to escape the pain."

"That's a lie!" Beast Boy blurted. "Raven would never give in, not for you!"

"You underestimate me, mortal," Trigon said. "And who said it was my tortures she succumbed to? She sacrificed her teenage body and the painful memories that came with it to escape the pain of loss. A pain that will be magnified when I destroy you! Trigon inhaled, and then blew out a huge stream of fire, descending towards the Titans, an orange writhing thing that radiated evil.

"No!" Starfire blurted, her anger rising and becoming fuel for a pair of eye beams, which slammed into Trigon's fire breath, and were then reinforced by waves from Cyborg's sonic canon. Neither of them affected Trigon's attack in the slightest...

**_KRAKOOOM_**

The wave of fire breath impacted with a massive explosion, leveling several blocks of the town and turning the ground into a charred, molten surface of stone. It should have vaporized the Teen Titans, but it didn't. They still stood when the smoke cleared, but now, they were all surrounded by a shield, a shield made of pure energy...

Green energy, from a ring of great power.

And there _they_ stood, like true titans of myth, in between Trigon and the teenagers. The Justice League: Green Lantern. Wonder Woman. Hawkgirl. Booster Gold. The Question. What relation those five could possibly have—well, except for Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's well-publicized ex-romance—may well be lost to time.

"Holy crap!" Ragnarök blurted. "How did they survive Trigon's alteration?"

"Who cares!" Cyborg said. "The cavalry is here!"

"We're not out of the woods yet, Titans." Robin approached the Justice League slowly.

"This is an interesting development," Trigon said. "But it will avail you little. I am truly all-powerful in this place!"

"Great Hera," Wonder Woman blurted. "What is this thing and how did you kids survive?"

"We have been wondering the same thing about yourselves," Starfire replied. "It seems unlikely that you were locked in a room full of runic symbols designed to ward of demons."

Wonder Woman just raised an eybrow at the teenager.

**oooo **

"Robin, Vic." John Stewart was the picture of a soldier, not showing a hint of his stress. "Care to explain?"

"That thing is Raven's father," Robin said.. "An arch demon called Trigon the Terrible."

"And where is Raven?" asked Hawkgirl.

"There." Beast Boy pointed towards the child hovering in the bubble. "I don't know what he's done to her, but somehow—"

"Is she supposed to be just a child?" John said.

"It's a side effect of letting Trigon in the world, apparently," Robin said. That drew a glance from John, so Robin explained. "She didn't do it willingly, I assure you. He coerced her somehow."

"I'll get her," he said.

Flying up, John sent the energy of his ring out to retrieve Raven from the fiery bubble in which Trigon was holding her, but with a casual gesture, Trigon stopped the power of the ring. The green energy found itself struggling against an unseen demonic force, unable to get closer to Raven. The green power and invisible force warred a bit longer, but the Green Lantern was forced away.

"I can't break through." John shouted down at the ground.

"Let me handle this!" muttered Shayera as she flew up, her Nth Metal mace drawn back and ready to swing. She collided with the invisible field and bashed it with her mace, causing it to scatter, disrupted by the metallurgy.

Shayera had just made it to Raven and started to break the bubble, when Trigon back handed her away. Hawkgirl went tumbling through the air until Wonder Woman caught her. Booster Gold and John joined the two women in the air, leaving the powerless Question on the ground.

"So," Question said, turning in the direction of the Titans. "Your name is Victor?" He extended his hand to Cyborg. "So is mine."

"Uh... Nice to meet you," Cyborg said.

**oooo**

In the sky, the four flying Leaguers unleashed their powers on Trigon. Wonder Woman tried attacking his head, grabbing one of his antlers and trying to break it off, but to no avail. John's ring was having little effect on it too, and Booster Gold's high-tech and expensive energy field could barely make a scratch.

"Skeets," called Booster to his droid. "What do you know about Trigon?"

"Trigun... Bzzt." The android searched it's data banks. "Trigun is a sci-fimanga series with a steampunkWild West theme created by Yasuhiro Nightow in 1995, and adapted into a 26 episode anime series in 1998 by Madhouse. It is the story of Vash the Stampede—"

Booster cut him off. "Not Tri_gun_; Tri_gon_!"

If Skeets said anything after this, it was drowned out by a massive roar of pain from Trigon. Booster looked up and saw that Shayera had made contact with her mace to the bridge of Trigon's nose, and the magic-disrupting properties had struck a nerve, so to speak.

"Well," Booster said aloud. "I could just set back and let Shayera kill him. They'll give me a little credit just for being here."

"Your weapon causes me pain!" Trigon bellowed at Shayera. "Identify yourself."

The red-haired heroine smirked. "I am Shayera Hol of Thanagar. You look upon the slayer of the dark god Icthultu." She extended her mace. "And the weapon that finished him off!" Shayera blasted forward and smashed Trigon some more across the face before his eyes glowed, and blasted her with a massive beam of his Death Glare.

She batted it away, but the demon drove her back. Soon, the Booster realized that not only was Shayera attacking Trigon's head, but that the Teen Titans were attacking him down below, knocking out his knees, burning or toes, or, in Cyborg's case, launching explosive missiles up his loincloth. Booster cringed at the thought of it...

Trigon again bellowed in pain, and then literally leapt into the air, and away from his attackers, fire exploding in the air around him. "YOU DARE OPPOSE THE OMNIPOTENCE OF TRIGON?" He bellowed. "Mere mortals! Your efforts are surely futile, for I cannot die! Icthultu was but a mere child next to me!"

"Who but the gods themselves are that old?" Wonder Woman shouted smugly, even as Trigon began to shrink, presumably so that nobody could get between his legs anymore.

"Foolish amazon, I AM a god--the only one this universe will worship!" From a distance, Trigon began blasting at the approaching Justice League and Titans, driving them back. "Mortal hands cannot undo me!"

John glanced at Diana. "Since when are you mortal, princess?" he asked.

"Since never," Diana returned.

"Enough talk!" Robin shouted, he and Ragnarök being carried by Starfire as the Tamaranian flew by. "Let's finish this."

"You are indeed persistent," Trigon said. "Perhaps you would be less so were someone other than myself your adversary." And with that, he hurled the dark ball of fire that encapsulated Raven at the Titans, knocking Starfire out of the sky...

Booster started to look back, but decided he should go after Trigon. He... might could possibly find a way to be useful. Maybe.

**oooo**

The impact of the bubble containing Raven shook a whole city block, and the Titans dodged out of the way. Their friend, they decided, was the most important thing right now, and so they all rushed to her aid.

"Raven!" Robin blurted. He ran to the crater and pulled the little girl within from the rubble. She wasn't moving...

"Is she okay?" Starfire asked. "Please say that she is alright!"

"I don't know."

"If he's hurt her I'm going to..." Beast Boy trailed off when he saw Raven's limp form. "Is she...?"

Robin laid her out on the ground and checked her pulse. Faint, but there... "She's alive," he said with a mixture of relief and exasperation.

Then, something happened. Raven's chakra glowed, and her eyes shot open, turning from violet to red, and splitting into four. The girl hovered off the ground and suddenly, the fire encasing her reappeared, and then seemed to go INTO her, filling her, empowering her...

Corrupting her. For what emerged from the flash of red light was not the Raven they knew. It was something else, something darker. Something _evil. _Her skin was flushed red as Trigon's, her eyes glowing pits of evil power, and her now-tattered cloak and leotard were jet black.

Her body was once again in the shape of a teenager's, but her mind was gone, replaced by this... _abomination._

"Greetings, friends," Red Raven said. "It is a good day to **die**."

"Raven... no!" Beast Boy sobbed. "This isn't happening!"

Red Raven promptly blasted him into the wall with a dark talon of energy.

"Get used to it. This is me now, who I was born to be. The Raven you knew no longer exists." Raven attacked Robin next, driving her fist into his stomach and then spin-kicking him into a brick wall. Starfire attacked too, but was dispatched by an ice spell, one that Raven cast with but a gesture.

"YOU AREN'T RAVEN!" Cyborg blurted, blasting at her with the sonic canon. "Now DIE!"

"Victor, Victor," Red Raven said. "You disappoint me."

Extending her hand, Raven caught the wave of sonic energy and held it, not fazed in the least. She walked forward, stressing Cyborg's gun and his ears as the sounds echoed back at him, until the feedback exploded, bursting the eardrum in Cyborg's biological ear and causing it to gush blood.

Ragnarök attacked last, hurling rocks at Raven. But the demoness dodged them easily and grabbed Rag by the throat. "Bow before my father if you wish to live," she said.

"Glomp you!" Rag said, using his geokinesis to blast Raven away, right into a Starbolt. Robin attacked too, smashing the demoness with his bo staff.

Raven lifted at hand, and created a shield dome around the two of them, which the remaining Titans began to attack futilely.

"Timothy." Raven said. Her fingernails extended outward, becoming six inch blades, and she leapt at Robin, murder in her glowing eyes. The two collided, blade and bo in a fight that exhausted Tim but seemed only to make Raven stronger.

She lashed her claws at him, but he threw his head back and deflected her follow-up strike, then dived forward and kicked her into the black shield she had made around them, even as the Titans outside pounded on it with their respective attacks.

"They can't get in. Not until you die, anyway. I'm supplementing the shield with the excess power of your soul, Timothy. A power that has no limit!"

"Shut up," Robin bit out, snapping his bo out so fast the movement was almost invisible. It slammed into Raven's face, magenta blood flowing onto her red skin from her mouth and nose.

"You'll pay for that!" Raven extended a hand, and fire appeared within the dome and blasted Robin backwards. He could feel not only the heat, but the air that remained rushing into the fire. Which meant that even if he didn't get cooked, he would suffocate! Robin staggered backwards and began pounding on the dome, trying to break out. But the futilely of this only made his resolve stronger, and that in turn strengthened the shield. And his body, unlike Raven's assessment of his soul, clearly had its limits. If he didn't get out quick, it would soon reach them.

Suddenly, something whirred through the air and slammed into the dome, and the magic barrier began to fall apart. Robin took the opportunity and hurled himself out of it with what little strength remained, hitting the ground on the other side hard and rolling into a kneeling position.

Suddenly, an orange and black figured blazed by, hurling two more of the shuriken that had released Robin from his prison... "Slade." Robin's word was a mixture of bitter admission and a question.

Slade slammed his feet into Raven and sent her flying halfway across the block, out of the back ally and into the streets. Slade followed up with a smack from his bo-staff that sent the demoness flying into the twisted remnants of the Noisy Lighthouse (which still hadn't opened for a day of business since Emmanuel had slain its patrons)...

The building collapsed on top of Raven, pinning her down...

Slade picked up his three shuriken and explained, "I bought the remnants of a Thanagarian weapon on the black market after the invasion, and had them melted down into practical weapons. In the event attack by such... magical beings." Slade paused and looked over to the team leader. "Robin. You want to win this battle; come with me. And that_ isn't _a request."

"You expect me to help you?" Robin bit out, joining the rest of the Titans around Slade.

"Believe me, Robin, if you knew what Trigon has taken from me, you wouldn't question my help. I want that demon to suffer, and then I want him to perish."

"Slade," Cyborg said, leveling his canon at the archvillain. "You expect us to help you based on nothing but your word?"

"Cyborg." Slade turned around. "I don't expect _you_ to trust me. I only expect Robin to. We're like two sides of the same coin. Besides. I only need him. You have to stay here and keep the witch and her father busy while I take you to the one thing that can destroy Trigon."

"Yeah right!" Collin blurted. "What help could you possibly have?"

Before Slade could answer, the entire bar exploded as Raven burst out of it, carried on column of black energy.

"We don't have time for me to answer that!" Slade barked. Then he grabbed Robin's wrist and took off, dragging the tired teen with him while the remaining Titans watched, not knowing what to do.

"Do as he says!" Robin shouted back. "We have nothing to lose by trusting him!"

"You're the leader!" Cyborg sighed, even as Raven swooped down to attack again.

"NO!" Starfire blasted the witch into what once was an apartment, and Cyborg followed her strike up with missiles launched into the same building.

"Bring it on!" Collin shouted, hurling daggers of rock into the shadows of movement he thought he saw in the clearing smoke. Beast Boy transformed into a massive gorilla and prepared for Raven's next strike...

And when it came, he was the target... Raven's soul self slammed into him, blasting him out of the alley towards the lava-filled bay, where Raven's body had teleported. The Titans pursued, taking the battle out into the open.

**oooo**

"Here. Take this," Slade said, handing a small vial to Robin. "It will help you regain your strength. Or maybe I gave you poison, and it will just kill you. You decide."

Robin glared at Slade bitterly, and drank the vial. Instantly, he felt better. "I noticed the mark on your head is gone."

Robin couldn't see Slade's face, but he imagined a bitter smirk. "I'm nobody's servant," Slade answered.

"So why are you helping me?"

"Believe it or not, I never wanted _this_ to happen to the world. I had a deal with Trigon, and he has failed to fulfill his end. And even had he, I would help you for revenge alone. Have you not wondered why my son Grant is not here?"

Robin looked up at Slade. "To tell the truth, that hadn't even crossed my mind."

This seemed to really irk Slade, because Slade glanced down with murder in his eye. "No, I suppose not. To you, he was just another criminal. But he was my_ son._"

"Was?" Robin's eyes grew wide.

"Grant is dead. Trigon murdered him."

"How many sons have you murdered?" Robin asked pointedly.

Slade shot that glare at him again. "That monster may have seduced a human and given life to your precious Raven, but he is no father. A father's love is not in him."

Robin looked down. This was a new side to Slade, one he hadn't seen. Weakened. Vulnerable.

"What happened?"

"Grant discovered what Trigon really wanted. Up until the night you heard the prophecy, my son believed that Trigon only wanted Raven for whatever reason. He had no idea who the devil really was. But when he found out, he wanted no part in any of it. He tried to walk away, told Trigon and myself he wanted out. So Trigon burned him alive, right before my eyes. And LAUGHED." Slade's eye was full of indignation, and in Robin's eyes, hypocrisy.

"You have the audacity to judge a murderer?" Robin said.

"Tread lightly, boy," Slade shot. "I take no pleasure in killing. I'm no sadist. I merely do what needs to be done. Much like yourself."

"I'm nothing like you."

The whole time, Robin and Slade had been talking, they had been moving ever closer to the old library, and now Robin found Slade leading him down into it, down into the chamber with the giant hand of Scath.

"Why have we returned here?"

"This is where the prophecy was meant to be fulfilled. I forced Trigon's hand, forcing Raven to unleash him in the city. I had thought he would be more vulnerable out in the open."

"But?"

"I miscalculated. Though it does seem that my actions did have some benefit. The Justice League. Raven must have somehow... protected them before allowing her father to enter the world."

Robin thought on this a moment. "How did you force Trigon's hand?"

"Simple. I made it so that Raven could not resist him any longer. How I accomplished that, you'd try to kill me if I told you."

Robin glared at Slade, wanting for not the first time to pour out all the hate and vitriol in his heart onto that man. But he could not, for at the moment, they were allies.

"This library leads to the caverns under the city. The place where Trigon found me. There is a portal there to places where mortals dare not tread. That is where we have to go."

"Not yet," Robin said. "Not until you tell me what_ I'm_ after."

"A ring. A very powerful ring," Slade answered. "That is all I will say for now."

**oooo**

And while the Titans fought Raven, and Slade and Robin delved into the underworld, Question watched the Justice League battle on against Trigon from a mesa that had once been a tall building.

Hawkgirl continued to trouble Trigon with her mace, but now that he was weary of it, he was managing to keep it away from him mostly.

"John!" shouted Shayera as she was blasted away, "can I get some help here?"

John flew to her and caught her in a green glove, and then let go when her momentum let up. She flapped her wings, lifting out of his grasp, and circling around. "He seems to be countering my mace now. Can you think of anything else?"

"I got nothing," John said, blocking anther death glare with a shield from his ring. "But I need to recharge my ring. Can you and Diana hold him off?"

"Negative!" Wonder Woman shouted. "I think my arm is broken."

"Think?"

"This is the first time it's happened!" Diana shot back. "It's not every day I fight someone of this power."

"Hey guys!" Booster Gold called. "If you don't mind!" Booster dodged away from a swing from Trigon's claws. He had held up much better than anyone had expected, mostly by staying back and attacking only when opportunity presented itself. But hey, if it keeps you alive...

"Right." John batted the shot away. "Shayera... see if you can set Diana's bone back in place. I'll hold him off until you're ready."

"But your ring—" Shayera trailed off. "Right. Do it."

John blasted forward, forming a giant axe with his power ring, and lashing it at Trigon, tying to knock away any energy attacks the he launched. This worked at first, but Trigon started firing random blasts, and soon the sky was so full of flack that he had to back off and put up a shield around himself and the women...

"Booster!" he shouted. "Get back here!"

"I have an idea!" Booster shot back. He blasted forward, dodging the blasts he could and hoping his shield could hold against the ones that he couldn't. "Trigon! Hey you!"

"Silence mortal!" Trigon swiped at him, but Booster dodged away, and flew close enough for Trigon to hear.

"Wait! I just have a question! Who would win in a fight: you or Satan?"

"HAH!" Trigon chuckled. "You must be joking. That wimp of a demon retired years ago. Now he owns a Nightclub down in Los Angeles."

"You don't say?" The confused Booster glanced southward, down the coast, down towards the City of Angels. How ironic.

Trigon nodded. "He was never really much of a brawler anyway. Lies were always his specialty."

"And you're honest Abe, huh?" Booster asked, nervously.

"Of course not," returned Trigon. "I'm perfectly capable of deception when it suits me. But I am all-powerful. Why would I need to lie constantly?"

"Oh." Booster thought this over for a moment, hoping that Trigon didn't suddenly vaporize him...

**oooo**

John couldn't believe it. Booster Gold was actually hovering there, having a CONVERSATION with TRIGON THE TERRIBLE. "What is this world coming to?"

"John," said Shayera. "While he's distracted, now would be a good time to recharge your ring."

John felt like smacking himself in the head. "Right."

With his will alone, John pulled his lantern out of its pocket dimension, and recited the oath.

_In brightest day_

_In blackest night_

_No evil shall escape my sight_

_Let those who worship evil's might_

_Beware my power_

_GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT!_

Green energy coursed from the lantern into John's ring, and the field around him surged. He was ready. Now was Trigon?

"And then there is Nathea," Trigon was laughing. "DON'T get me started on Nathea!"

"She a pain in the—?"

"IS SHE EVER. I'm supposed to be omnipotent and I can't stand her." Trigon sighed impatiently, almost as if he was waiting for something. "Well. I AM omnipotent."

At that moment, an idea stuck Booster Gold. It was utterly, completely insane, but... it was worth a shot. "If you were all powerful, you'd be able to lock yourself in this plain cardboard box with no way of escaping, and to make it interesting, you'd also be able to be forced back into said box every time I want to. Can you do that?" Booster produced a cardboard box from seemingly nowhere.

"FOOLISH MORTAL! Of course I could do that. You underestimate me by far."

"Oh. Well then, do it."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Trigon asked, his demeanor suddenly derisive. "It was a nice try, mortal, but you still shall die." Trigon then pistoned back his fist and punched Booster Gold halfway across the country.

"Well, that went well," John said, the remaining three flight-capable Justice Leaguers preparing to fight again.

"You think Booster will be alright?" Hawkgirl asked.

"He's resilient if nothing else," Diana said.

Trigon again looked as though he were waiting for something, and just as John was about to demand to know what, something happened... Yellow power began seeping from all over the planet, seeping INTO Trigon...

"What in the blazes?" John flew back, not knowing what was happening.

"FOOLS. Weren't you curious why I picked your All Hallows Eve of all days to set up my kingdom? FEAR is the reason. Sentient fear."

And suddenly, though Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl were still baffled, John and Vic Sage_ knew. _The Yellow Impurity had returned.

"John!" Diana demanded. "What in the name of Zeus is going on?"

"This can't be happening. He—it was destroyed!"

"WHO?" From Shayera. "Who was destroyed?"

"Parallax!"

**oooo**

Oz continued on on the R-Cycle, moving at at least 120 miles an hour on the blazing fast thing. If it were smaller it would be a hydrogen crotch-rocket. He only had about 45 more minutes until he got to Jason Blood's place...  
The whole Earth was desolate, everywhere he looked nothing but stone people and twisted, hellish landscaping. The worst thing to see was planes that had fallen out of the sky when the world changed. Most of the people inside probably shattered when the aircraft hit the ground...

So dead was the world, that despite all Oz had said and had seen in his life, it chilled him literally to his bone. It also meant that a Booster Gold-shaped meteor crashing into the ground right in front of his bike was the LAST thing he expected, and had to swerve to avoid the bike falling into the crater.

Oz didn't even look back to see what it was, though. If Trigon was attacking him with washed-out-hero-shaped meteors now, he had to speed up. He pulled back on the throttle, and blasted off. He had a weapon to find...

* * *

**Author's Note**: Parallax is an evil entity from the DC comics Universe. I will have my own explanation of his story in the next chapter, but you might want to familiarize yourself with the official comics version anyway. My version will be based on the show, as always. 

And to Prisionero. Colon P! I told you I'd use it!


	12. Trigon: Unrepentant

**Authors' Note: The version of the Parallax story line in this chapter is my own version of the events. It did not officially happen in animated continuity, and it happened very differently in comics continuity.**

**

* * *

**

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Twelve  
**

Parallax.

Certainly unexpected. This was the last thing that John thought would happen. Parallax was gone, destroyed—all of it thirty years ago, in the last great battle of the silver age of superheroism.

Yeah, there had been an age before this one, though few knew of it. Because in the last great battle, the entire world had been mind-wiped by Zatarra, father of Zatanna, and now, only a select few knew of what had happened. And because it had involved a Green Lantern, John was one of those few.

In the Silver Age, as they called it, there were many great heroes, but perhaps none greater than Barry Allen and Hal Jordan—the second Flash, and the second hero to bear the name Green Lantern on earth, though the first human member of the Green Lantern Corps. And in the end, the last great battle had all come down to them...

But it had started in the center of the Universe. After a great battle on the planet Oa, Hal Jordan had returned to earth, confident about the future. But then, something happened. Hal Jordan went insane, it seemed, and began lashing out at those around him. He attacked his wife, and she fled. When he couldn't find her, his ring lashed out, and began destroying his town, Coast City. And in his madness, he took a new name: Parallax.

The heroes didn't know what was going on, but they knew he had to be stopped. They tried to talk Hal down, but... he wouldn't listen to reason. He was paranoid, _fearful. _Hal Jordan, who was supposed to be the most fearless man on the planet, seemed to be terrified._  
_

It took a united effort of the greatest heroes of that age, and eventually he was brought down. But in that great battle, now called the Final Fright, Barry Allen was killed, and the world was left without a Flash until his nephew Wally West took over, only remembering that his uncle had been Flash, and not how he had died.

It was not Hal Jordan responsible for the terror, though. The blood of Coast City, and the blood of his friend Barry Allen was not on his hands.

It all fell on Parallax.

An massive, corrupt yellow energy, a being of sentient fear given form, ancient as time immortal, had been trapped in the central power battery for all the Green Lantern rings on Oa. This being, who called itself Parallax, had seeped into Jordan during a particularly trying exertion, in which had drawn on the battery itself to destroy an armada... and it corrupted him, making him into a monster, into the very thing he swore to fight.

In the end, Jordan defeated Parallax, though it cost him is sanity. But the casualties, the scars ran far deeper.

Many superheroes retired, and many more were forced to do so because of injuries or public outcry. It became bad enough that the entire world's memories of the Green Lantern Hal Jordan were erased, and the wounds of that era left vague dark areas in the human mind.

**oooo**

How had Parallax survived that fight? Was he immortal? After all, it was fear with a mind. Could you even destroy that?

Whatever the case may be, it seemed that now, this demon before him, this Trigon the Terrible, was drawing on that fear and the power that came with it, whatever power it may be..

"Parallax?" Shayera asked, drawing John out of his stupor. The look in her eyes said she knew. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, was not so knowledgeable.

"What? You know this _thing _or entity he's talking about?"

"Only from history class. Some sort of fear monster that was supposedly destroyed thirty years ago." She raised her mace slightly. "Trigon seems to be pulling his plays from an old book now."

"Shayera," John said, "It's not that simple. I don't think—"

Suddenly, a massive explosion interrupted the conversation, as power exploded from Trigon, blasting them backwards. John shielded them, trying to will his ring to hold its own against the awesome might of this new combination of Trigon and Parallax...

"This is truly a good day," the new being said. It resembled Trigon, but had four extra insectoid arms protruding from its back... and its skin was a hideous hue of red-orange... Mostly hideous because of the face, really.

"That fool Trigon thought he could control Parallax," the thing said. "It was all folly."

"Did that thing just imply what I thought it did?" Diana asked.

"Afraid so," Hawkgirl shot back.

"Does this mean that Parallax is stronger than Trigon?" Diana asked?

"That's impossible!" John said. "Hal Jordan destroyed the manifestation of Parallax single handedly after the Flash freed him, and my ring couldn't touch Trigon."

"This from the man who thought transistors were invented _after _World War II?" Shayera smirked.

John blushed. "I was a mistake anyone could make. You know that."

Suddenly, a massive ball of fire cut them off again, as Trigon-Parallax literally ran forward, his massive feet making craters in the ground as he ran, the weight of his body shaking the ground for miles.

"No!" John charged towards him. "We have to get him out of this city before he collapses the entire thing!"

"Agreed," said Diana.

Hawkgirl said nothing, but charged a head. If Parallax was not a magic based entity, her mace's ability to injure him might decrease. Then again, Parallax and whatever energies made him up could also be vulnerable, but Shayera tended to look on the down side to everything.

John arrived first, and blasted his ring's energy out, wrapping around Para-trigon's neck and jerking has hard as he could, dragging the demon a few steps before he could exert a counter force.

Wonder Woman charged in, batting away his eye beams with her bracelets and trying to get a clear shot at his face. She managed to get close, and delivered a series of blows that caused the massive demon to stagger, but the ground they were gaining wasn't worth the effort it took.

Shayera smashed at his massive kneecap with her mace, but it made only flesh wounds, wounds that quickly healed at that. But at least that told her it hadn't lost all it's ability to fight the beast. And what the Titan called Cyborg had done earlier gave her an idea...

**oooo**

Red Raven lashed out another dark tendril at the million dollar teen, and he had to backpedal to get away before she ensnared him. He started to fire his chain gun at her, but before he could aim it, a massive rock slammed into her from the side, knocking her towards the lava-filled bay.

"That shot was mine!" Vic shouted at Collin.

"Shut up and fight!" he shot back, fierce as Cyborg had ever seen him.

Raven tore apart the rock with a chuckle, as if she had enjoyed the pain, and immediately blasted a ball of fire at both Cyborg and Ragnarök before turning to counter a punch from the incoming Starfire. The two girls struggled briefly in the air before Starfire blasted a starbolt... right through Raven's chest...

It didn't damage her in the least, as the matter that made her body slid away, and then reverted right back into place when the blot had passed. "I would say something like 'nice job' right now," Raven said. "If it hadn't been so pathetic!" She grabbed Star by the throat and slammed the Tamaranian girl to the ground, lashing out a tendril that cut into her collar bone and pierced all the way through to the ground.

Star let out a faint cry of pain, but quickly severed the energy tendril with her eye beams and blasted back at the witch despite her injuries. "You are the pathetic one! A hollow shell of the girl that was our friend!" As she said the last word, she encased a fist in a starbolt and slammed it into Raven's face...

Raven ate it, literally, her mouth wrapping around Starfire's entire fist and her wicked fangs sinking into her wrist.

Starfire gritted her teeth and blasted the abomination in the face as it laughed—and this time her attack succeeded, blasting Red Raven's head wide open, and allowing Kori to free her hand...

The head reformed, incorporeal as ever. But it seemed angry.

"THAT HURT, TROQ!" she blurted, slicing at Kori with her claws. "You can't defy my father and you can't defy me!"

Star dodged the first two swipes, but found herself slamming into a light pole as she dodged the third attack. Thankfully Cyborg's auto cannon tore the limb off before it could touch the alien girl...

"Stay out of this, Victor!" Raven shouted, blasting a black energy spike at him.

He easily dodged it, but it exploded into dozens of smaller spikes when it hit the ground, and several of them pierced Victor's metal body. He cursed his luck as he fell, and began re-routing the systems she had damaged...

Raven turned back to Kori, only to see that some distance now existed between the two, and had to raise a shield fast to avoid being hit by another starbolt—true she couldn't suffer real damage, but it was painful nonetheless.

Still, it seemed only so much fun as long as they didn't realize they couldn't possibly defeat her... and they would figure that out soon enough.

But until then, she would truly enjoy tormenting them.

**oooo**

As Robin and Slade delved deeper into the chasms below the city, it got hotter. Much hotter. Lava, like on the planet's new surface, seemed to abound, and Robin felt an uneasy dread. Slade, if he felt it, showed no signs of it. Robin determined not to show any either.

"Tell me more about this ring now," he demanded.

"Very well," Slade said. "The ring—or should I say_ rings_—were forged in Azarath many centuries ago by Azar herself. They contained great power, but not nearly enough to destroy Trigon. She needed something else, and she knew exactly where to get it. Her sheep," Trigon said, looking at Robin.

"What?"

"You see, Robin," he said, "the cult of Azarath was supposedly pacifist, rejecting all violence and evil and living in purity. But it was all a ruse. From the very beginning, Azar intended to oppose Trigon, to destroy him once and for all. And she knew that Trigon would attack some day. So she forged her rings with the power to contain the essence of a human soul. And the day Trigon struck, she got them. She got them by the thousands!"

Slade paused and let Robin process this. "You're saying that Azar used her people—betrayed them—to destroy Trigon?"

Slade nodded. "The day Trigon laid waste to Azarath, he found not Azar, but her children, the rebellious who knew that violence wasn't the worst of evils, that complacency and laziness were just as deadly, just as useful to the things that go bump in the night—they were the ones who resisted Trigon. Some fled, some went to the temple and prayed. But ultimately, Azarath was doomed. Trigon found Azar in her temple, channeling the souls of the dead into her rings."

"And?"

"He killed her, of course. In cold blood. Like the devil he is."

"Are you referring to Trigon or yourself?" Robin asked.

"You flatter me, honestly," he said sarcastically. Then he resumed the story. "Trigon took the rings because he wanted to corrupt the souls therein. But before he could find a way to do that, this day came. And here we are, searching for the last vestige of Trigon's mistake. He thinks himself omniscient? The fool is blinded by his own power-lust. He may be powerful, but he lacks intelligence. He lacks strategy."

"What are you saying?" Robin's voice had its edge removed, mostly because Slade was unnerving him.

"I'm saying that if I had Trigon's power and his motivation, none of you would stand a chance. Be thankful, Robin, that I am not him."

After a while of the two saying nothing, they continued on in silence, until a loud chanting began to ring throughout the caverns.

"What is that?" Robin asked. "It sounds like... bats."

"No, boy. They are Trigon's servants..."

Hundreds of flaming demons began to seep through the floor, an army of slaves, dedicated to protecting Trigon's secrets. Robin and Slade would have quite the fight ahead of them.

"Let's get to work," Robin said.

"Indeed," Slade replied, drawing his bo staff in unison with Robin...

The two charged forward in perfect synchronization, whirling their staffs into each of the demons as the past, breaking them up and pressing onwards, delving ever deeper into the chasms below the city.

Slade jumped high above Robin's head and came down with a spin kick that took out several fire demons, and Robin threw a bird-a-rang over his shoulder and took out a demon that was about to strike Slade.

With an inhumanly quick jerk of his neck, Slade was looking in Robin's direction and suddenly thrust his staff directly at the neck of the Boy Wonder. Robin moved his head and rolled out of the way, causing the staff to impale the demon behind him, and then jumped across the chasm, which was now narrow enough, and began to fight his way down a ramp on the other side.

In a minute, Slade was airborne as well, and the older combatant hurled a quartet of shuriken into the mob of fire demons attacking Robin. The Nth-metal blades tore through them like tissue and Slade quickly landed, and began fighting along side Robin.

Again, their movements became perfectly synchronized as the fought, and in this manner they tore through the demons as they fought their way closer to the goal.

Suddenly, a duo of glowing silver demons erupted from the lava below and knocked Slade across a narrow lava chasm where he slammed his head against a rock, and the faceplate of his helmet went flying off into the lava, sinking and melting just as it had when Terra had betrayed him.

Robin didn't notice, as he was busy with the silver demons. Monstrous things they were, with the heads of voles and the body's of lions, and wings like a bat. Robin back flipped away and threw an explosive disk into he mouth of one...

It's head exploded into a sparkle of silver energy, and Robin drew his bo back into a deep stance ready to fight the other...

Only to have the weapon ripped from his hands by a trio of fire demons that had appeared behind him..

Robin cursed them, and jumped up, bounding off one of their heads and leaping over the charging silver demon. It slammed into the thieves, and tore them to shreds. Sadly, this had the averse effect of knocking Robin's bo into the lava, where it sank and melted. Thinking quickly, he snapped out two birdarangs and clicked them together to form his sword, which he quickly used tho shear of the wings, then the claws, and finally the head of the vole-demon.

The head rolled to a halt, it's burgundy blood evaporating as it went. Then the head burned up in a blue flame, and all went silent, save for the rumbling of seismic activity.

Glancing around and seeing no more threats for the moment, Robin ran over to Slade to make sure he was still able to move. And then cried out in shock, albeit briefly, as Slade sat up quickly...

Revealing his face to be nothing but a skull.

**oooo**

"Finally," Oz said, stumbling up the stairs to Jason Blood's house. The whole thing was twisted into a metallic mad house, at least on the outside. On the end side, things were a little calmer. No doubt he had many magic enchantments on the place to protect it from this sort of thing. At first Oz began to wonder whether or not Blood had survived, gotten out or to a safe-room like he and the Titans had done...

But when he made his way into Jason's study and found the wizard there, frozen in mid-run, turned to stone like everyone else on the planet, his heart sank slightly. But he couldn't help it now, except by making sure that Trigon was defeated. He just hoped that the Titans were alright.

As he walked by he realized that it looked like Jason was reaching for something. He looked in front of him, but found only a pedestal with a replica of an ancient ship under glass, one of the things fortunate enough to be over-looked by Trigon's power.

But why would Blood be reaching for his ship in a moment like this? Oz shrugged and turned to see if he could remember exactly how to get to the room where he had fought the demon Etrigan for the blade he now again sought, so long ago.

Just as he started to reach out with his white strands of energy, though, something tackled him, and impact that sent him flying across the room into an old cabinet, shattering the wood and scattering its contents on the floor. Oz quickly scanned the room for what had attacked him, and saw nothing...

Unfortunately, looks deceived him and he soon found himself on the receiving end of more brutal blows to the face. But he couldn't see his assailant! Oz dived out of the way, only to be tripped up and fall flat on his stomach, his chin smashing through the wooden pedestal that Blood was reaching for. Oz spat up blood and rolled onto his back, then noticed where the dust was distorting in the vague shape of a shoulder...

Some sort of invisibility magic, he assumed. Oz kicked at the shape and his foot made contact, knocking it back into the wall. Some fragile looking objects on a high shelf fell to their demise at the impact. The creature dived again, attacking Oz. The stranger defended as best he could against what he could not see, but eventually in frustration extended a hand and wrapped the attacker in the white strands from his hand, hurling it against Jason's bookshelf.

In this time he gathered that it was roughly humanoid in shape, and about three feet tall. It felt incredibly bony, too, and all the more Oz wanted to keep it off of him. Suddenly, deep in the back of his mind he realized that if his chin had slammed through a ship under glass he would have had a lot more damage done than a cut tongue... and in the time it took him to glance back at the broken pedestal, the creature he was struggling to contain figured out that the white strands didn't like being cut. Sinking a deadly sharp bone into them.

Oz stifled a scream, but held onto the monster anyway, though many of the white strands retracted on instinct, and the creature was heavier than he looked, falling to the ground and darting forward to shoulder ram Oz backwards into a chair, causing yet more trinkets to fall from high shelves. Some of them landed on Jason's head; then the chair Oz had landed on broke and he fell to the ground.

Oz finally got the pain under control enough to wrap the attacker tighter, but it somehow hurled itself backwards and jerked Oz with it. Again, he found himself flat on this stomach on the floor, perpendicular to his first gut print in Jason's carpet. It was then he noticed the stock of a gun of some kind sticking out of he rubble of the pedestal, and grabbed it, not paying attention.

He brought it to bear on on the shape struggling against his restraints, shifting the white energy anytime he felt the slightest hint of a cut, and then releasing the creature entirely, withdrawing the strands back in a split second before pulling the trigger on the gun. A burst of white energy exploded out as the shotgun blew the thing's shoulder off. He fired three more times before coming to a rest, and watched as a body slowly faded into vision—some sort of golem constructed of flesh and bone, but no muscle, a horribly stinking. It was nothing more than a skeleton of the bones of many different creatures wrapped in old tanned flesh.

A face had been drawn on the skin wrapped round the skull, a hideous reminder that this thing was an abomination—Oz couldn't vocalize this, but he felt it in his heart. Was this thing something Blood had sealed? Had it been released by Trigon? Oz didn't know, but he was glad he had found the gun. He wiped more blood from his mouth and then examined his gun..

And his jaw fell, because he realized that it was constructed from ivory, the barrel seemed to shine like gold.

And the gun had a cross beam...

"John Constantine's Holy Shotgun?" Oz muttered. "John _Effing_ Constantine's Holy Shotgun. I thought that was just part of that stupid movie! It actually exists?"

The stranger walked over to the pedestal and examined it more closely. The wood seemed real enough, but the glass and ship were nowhere to be found anymore. Moving some of the wood aside, Oz found a jewel, and when he lifted it from the rubble, a completely convincing image of the ship appeared in front of him. Some sort of magic-based hologram, he rightly guessed.

Oz then wondered why Jason Blood had Constantine's gun in the first place, but he realized that it was _wholly _irrelevant. Ha! He made a pun! Oz reached down and cocked the gun. It was here, he had it, and Constantine was probably stone, just like Blood was.

And if there was anything else in here that wanted to attack him... well, they'd just have to say hello to his little friend... "'Holy Shotgun'..." Oz thought aloud. "What an utterly ridiculous name."

**oooo**

Smashing Cyborg's head against the side of a building was obviously giving Red Raven a bunch of pleasure, because she kept doing it long after it had ceased to be an especially effective means of attack.

The Titans let her know about their distaste in her actions too, as they attacked all the harder. But it seemed that fate was proving cruel, as the more they fought, the more determined they became, the stronger Red Raven seemed to become.

"Face it, 'friends,'" Raven said. "Your determination only makes me more powerful!"

Raven uttered three words in the language of Trigon's world, a grim parody of 'Azarath Metrion Zinthos' that shall not be repeated here, and the entire block was engulfed in red power. Buildings shattered, the remains of cars exploded, and the people turned to stone all over came a horrible, cold life—walking statues that lent their powers to Raven.

Starfire darted forward and blasted at Raven with a stream of starbolts, but dodged away as Raven deflected them back at her. She shot some eye beams, but Raven dodged them easily and the slammed into the unconscious Cyborg, digging into his chassis and probably tearing some of his leg motors to pieces. Starfire started to gasp an apology, but was cut off when Raven wrapped the girl up in a dark tendril of energy. Raven's red body exploded into power, and energy tendrils erupted from within her now-repaired cloak, like a hideous monster.

Her eyes glowed red, and the tentacles grabbed Cyborg, then Beast Boy and Ragnarök too, pulling them in and constricting the life out of them, drawing in energy from their souls.

"Yes, Titans! Give the power of your hearts to me! Submit to the will of the Terrible Eighth Devil!"

"We will not give up!" responded Kori. "Fight this demon, Raven! I know this is _not_ you!"

"Shut up!" Raven barked, sending a pulse of power towards Kori, wracking her body with pain. The Tamaranian screamed out in shock, and gritted her teeth through the torture. She tried to blast Raven with eye beams, but a tendril quickly wrapped around her face and then her neck, slowly constricting her to death...

**oooo**

Agony wracked Collin's body has he stared on in horror. Raven seemed to think slowly squeezing the life out of Starfire was some sort of a game... and it was making Ragnarok furious...

But what could he do? The demon Raven had become was squeezing the life out of him as well. Exquisite agony shot up Collin's arms and legs, and the dark power seemed to seep into his pores and heat his blood.

He screamed, unable to hold it in and not having the pain tolerance of a Tamaranian. Beast Boy did too, and Raven laughed, forcing Starfire to listen as both of them were slowly killed.

Starfire tried to bark orders, but the tendrils gagged her mouth, and plugged her nose... probably causing terrible pain from the touch... She would suffocate in terrible pain, listening as her friends writhed and screamed. Then they would die too.

Another jolt shot up Rag's back, and he bit down hard, his tongue becoming the victim now...

"STOP IT!" Beast Boy demanded, trying to transform into various animal shapes, but to no avail. "Raven! We're your friends! Quit!"

"I have no friends," Red Raven said matter-of-factly. "I have only my father, and I have the joy that killing you all will bring!"

Rag thought what was going on had hurt before, but now, the pain was magnified ten fold, and he screamed, trying to do something, to struggle free. He felt a warm sensation near his leg, and looked down to see a tendril digging into it...

But then, he realized the sensation wasn't painful, just warm. And suddenly he remembered the shard of metal she had given him. Collin gritted his teeth and began muttering through his pain, even as the blood from his sliced ongue drained out. A jolt caused him to scream, and the agony only worsened, but Raven was so focused on Starfire she didn't seem to notice him reaching his hand down to the spot on his leg...

His hand slid inside the pocket on his armor's right leg and the warm sensation of the glowing metal reached his hand, somehow giving him a faint spark of hope... The sensation ran up his arm, and wherever it touched the dark power of Trigon no longer hurt, the powers funneled by the devil's daughter were losing their bite.

Rag pulled the shard out and swung his free arm back. "Hey, Raven!" He shouted...

The demoness glanced back at him and her eyes went wide when she saw what he held.

Rag snapped his arm forward, the glowing shard of metal lancing out and striking Raven in the chest... or that was what he had intended..

If it had hit, it would have probably gone through her neck or chin, but it didn't hit at all. The witch reacted with Slade-like speed, knocking the shard away.

And Rag gasped in horror as it slammed through Starfire's chest, sheering through her purple clothing and bone and piercing her heart.

Orange blood trickled out, and Starfire gasped, glancing at Ragnarök before her head fell, her eyes closed, and life left the girl's body. Not even a death rattle.

Raven smirked. "Well, that didn't go exactly as intended, did it?"

...what had he just done?

"No... Kori!" He was struggling for the words, and began to dry heave in place. What had he done? He had just...

"STARFIRE!" Beast Boy screamed through his pain. "KORI!"

Collin could find no words... he just hovered their, the pain eating away at his heart masking the pain Raven was inflicting entirely. He no longer cared about his body.

That witch... it wasn't _his _fault! It was the witch's...

That didn't make him feel any better, though, just angry on top of his pain...

Then he saw the twitch. It was subtle, but there—Starfire's hand... could she be? No, that was ridiculous. Even a Tamaranian couldn't survive a big shard of metal through the heart.

But...

The blood that ran from her wound suddenly reversed itself, sliding back up her body into her chest, and then..

**_KRAKOOM!_**

White light exploded from within the Tamaranian girl, and consumed her, her body radiating with light. Her eyes snapped open, glowing white. The look on her face confused. And angry. She held her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them again.

Dashing forward, Kori dragged the light with her, and as it touched the dark energy tendrils from Raven's cloak, they dissipated. The Titans dropped to the ground, and slowly their bodies began to return to normal.

And they watched as Red Raven reacted.

"What magic is this?" Raven blurted hovering away. "I demand to know!"

"Where this power comes from, I cannot tell you!" Starfire said. "But I know how to use it!" Starfire blasted forward, and began pounding Red Raven with her fists, then spun around and kicked her across the street.

"Father—" Raven started to scream, but in a flash, her mouth was blasted off by a Starbolt.

"Your father cannot help you now," Starfire said. "Now GO BACK TO HELL!"

She raised her hands and a massive starbolt formed, and she hurled it at Red Raven...

She had just enough time to reform her damaged face and let out a shriek of fear when the giant ball of white light consumed the witch, and a massive explosion rocked the district. What few buildings were left standing collapsed from the force of the explosion.

When it cleared, Red Raven was no more. Instead, their friend had returned, though unconscious and obviously battered. The demon had literally been burned off of her. How it had killed the evil and not the good was unknown to the Titans, but suddenly, they were glad.

With the exception of damaged Cyborg, the Titans rushed over to Raven, and the girl sat up...

Her eyes were full of tears when she said, "Trevor!"

**oooo**

The frog demon jumped at Oz and he rolled out of the way and unloaded two rounds from the Holy Shotgun and the beast exploded into shards of carbon. He checked his ammo and realized that it was still regenerating, which meant he didn't have to worry about it.

A Hyena beast charged from the hallway, and Oz leveled the gun on it.

He charged forward, knowing he was near the prize. And just as the beast came within a foot of the barrel, Oz squeezed off a round, causing it's head to explode off into ashes.

The final door had once been a runic symbol to which one would have had to know the password. But now, it was twisted into a crimson sheet of burnt iron and copper. Oz reached down and twisted the gun so that the most powerful shell would be used. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos," he said, and pulled the trigger. The resulting explosion blew him straight backwards, and he rolled over his shoulders as he landed. Quickly getting up, Oz ran into the room. It had been most completely untouched, and familiar magic weapons adorned the walls.

He'd seen them all before, in his own universe.

But none of them mattered, for in this world, Trigon was _truly _mighty. And his demise would require something with a bit more kick. In the far end of the long hall, upon a pedestal sat a sword—perhaps the most powerful on Earth.

The Fang.

Oz picked it up, and immediately he heard a voice in his head and heart.

_You who travel the road between worlds, you have already merged with me. You cannot merge again._

Oz blinked, and the voice continued.

_You must choose, traveler, this world's wielder. Choose well. And until then, I shall keep you safe._

And in keeping with the fact he had just used the Holy Shotgun to slay a bunch of demons, Oz decided to pay tribute to Keanu Reeves.

"Whoa," he said.

* * *

Sorry it took so long to get this one out!  



	13. Trigon: Unfettered

**Author's Note: **Sorry this chapter was so long in coming. I've been rather busy, and lazy alternating throughout this Christmas break. I hope you all enjoy. This contains that one part I've REALLY wanted to write but had to get to it first.

**

* * *

Teen Titans in Colors  
Trigon: Unfettered  
**

Paratrigon still loomed over the vast expanse of city, and the Justice League was running out of ideas and running out of energy. The only thing keeping them from being charred, skewered, or bludgeoned to death by Trigon was John's ring, and even it wasn't omnipotent. Shayera flew towards the massive amalgam, shielded from the beast's enormous power—and from certain death—by only the green energies of John's ring.

Hawkgirl got close enough and unleashed some pent up fury, bashing the amalgam with all her Thanagarian might, until Trigon grabbed her with his massive now-orange fist and began squeezing the life out of her.

Wonder Woman charged forward, ignoring the deep gashes in her fists, and began pounding into Trigon's face, until he let go of Shayera, only to blast Wonder Woman with his four massive evil eyes.

"Mortals, surrender. You cannot destroy what I am now. I have all of Trigon's powers! FEAR ME!"

Wonder Woman was propelled backwards and John came up beside her, catching her in a green energy field from his ring.

"Any suggestions?" she asked weakly. Even with strength from Zeus, she was little match for the villain.

"I have no idea. This thing seems to be more Parallax than Trigon. And it took a will as strong as Hal Jordan's to beat him the first time..."

"If anyone has such a will," Wonder Woman said, "It's Shayera."

John looked at her in sad skepticism as Shayera retreated from Trigon, looking very ill. Her wings fluttered gently and then stopped, and she started to fall... John quickly extended his hand and caught her, using the ring to lift the both of them...

"He's toying with us," Shayera said. "He could have killed me and he chose to just torture me instead!"

Trigon said nothing, but instead began blasting at the Justice League with his eye beams, and occasionally with the fire breath. "Fall before my mighty death glare!" it bellowed. "Grant your flesh the torment it seeks and give your souls to me! I shall cultivate them with fear for all eternity!"

"Shut up!" John bellowed, blasting his ring out to intercept Trigon's attacks. He saw the top of a sky scraper explode and suddenly it occurred to him that their battle was tearing the town to shreds... His ring went from shield to net, spreading out as fast as John' could will it, trying to catch the blasts before they did anymore damage to the embattled city... But some of them still got through and slammed into various buildings and others into the ground. "No..."

"We have to get him out of the city!" Wonder Woman said.

"But how? Think you can lift him, princess?"

Wonder Woman glared at Shayera, and then turned to John. "Can you lift him with your ring?"

"Uh, I think so. But I'll need a boost..."

"What kind of boost?"

Once again, John turned at used his ring to bring the lantern that powered it out of it's pocket dimension. "Shayera. Hold this..."

Shayera gave him a glare that said, 'who are you to be bossing me around,' but took the lantern anyway.  
"I'll distract him," said Diana, darting forward through the air and dodging the blasts Trigon fired at her. She flew above him, so that the beams would not hit the city, John prayed she would give him and Shayera enough time...

"Alright," he said, "Let's do this." He hovered nearer to Shayera, and extended his ring towards Trigon... Energy began to flow from the battery directly into his ring, and John willed it to flow out.

"Hey, Parallax!" he shouted, "Or whatever your name is now."

Paratrigon bellowed in a growl that shook the city and smashed Diana with his fist, blasting her away from the attack. She slammed into a building, digging a crater into the side of it. She didn't move from that position, and John began to worry...

No. He couldn't worry. Parallax would feed off that. He had to be firm. He had to be like Hal...

A great green rope of raw energy exploded from his ring. "'BEWARE MY POWER!'" John growled at him. And then, with immense effort, John pulled upward, and the rope reacted, unbelievably lifting the mighty beast off the ground... And with a whip-crack, John forced the energy eastward, hurling Trigon into the Californian dessert. "'GREEN LANTERN'S... LIGHT!'"

"Great Hera!" Shayera said... John figured she'd been around Diana too long...

**0000**

"Oh my..." Robin gasped as he stared into Slade's maskless face. His visage was a skull, devoid of flesh, his left eye impossibly still intact. The bone around his left eye socket was marked with a scar that hinted at the violence that had cost him his left eye.

"I would have rather you not seen this," Slade said with a tinge of disappointment and frustration in his voice. "Terra's betrayal should have been the end of me."

"She killed you," Robin stated more than asked... "You really_ were_ gone."

"Yes, boy. But then, Trigon intervened. Not on my behalf of course. He needed a liaison. Someone to be his messenger. And since I was already near the Rock of Scath—a stone of power that granted Trigon a tenuous link with this world—and since lost something I dearly wanted..."

"You made a deal. He gives you your skin back, you give him Raven. I should have known."

"This should hardly come as a surprise to you." Slade looked away. "I make it no secret that I'm nobody's servant." Slade's voice filled with contempt as he said the last word.

Removing the back of his helmet, Slade chucked the piece into the lava too. It did him little good without his faceplate.

"Let's go, boy. It's still a long walk to where we're going."

So on the two walked, silent for most of the journey. Soon the came to a place where a bridge led off one direction and a path continued forward only to come to a sheer drop off, with pieces of rock jutting from the lava below.

Slade walked toward the bridge and looked back, his skeletal face smirking. "This is where we part ways, Robin. Do take care."

"Slade," Robin said. "You put the rings here, didn't you."

"Why yes," he said. "Yes, I did." His voice radiated arrogance. "I needed something of worth or you would never have come with me. And if Trigon dies before I get my flesh and blood back. Well..." Slade trailed off, but what he was implying was clear.

"Is that supposed to earn you my sympathies?" Robin asked bitterly.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Slade said. "Or you might be going back to Gotham soon—to attend your former employer's funeral."

Robin glared daggers at him and ran off, using the rocks as stepping stones to cross the lake of lava. Soon he came upon more fire demons, and they rushed at him. Robin combined the two birdarangs again and formed his sword. He charged the demons and began hacking at them with his blade, dodging their attacks and forcing his way through. He twirled his sword around in a burst of sudden speed and hacked several to pieces. A survivor retreated, glaring at Robin. Robin glared back, and held his sword horizontal, the blade pointed forward at the demon. It shot backwards and lashed its right arm forward. Robin dodged to the side and looked up again, only to see the left arm shoot at him too. He charged forward and jumped atop the strand of fire and ran along it, barely able to believe it supported his weight.

Then he cut the fire demon's head off. He landed hard and rolled forward, looking around. And he saw in front of him a bridge at the far end of the cave. It led across another chasm of lava into a temple-like building that appeared to have been carved from the rocks of these deep chasms. Inside it was utterly dark. Robin ran forward, dodging or countering attacks from fire-demons...

Then something bad happened: more of the silver vole-headed demons appeared in front of him, though this set had no wings. But this time, there were four of them, and they all rushed him instantly. Robin clipped his sword to his belt and hurled an explosive disk at the ground in front of him, then darted backwards, pushing off the wall and doing an insane leap over the four monsters.

**_BOOM!_**

The disk exploded, blasting one of the vole-demon's chest open. But it just turned and snarled at him, somehow, it seemed, not even phased by the gaping hole in it's torso. Robin backpedaled, making sure there was nothing behind him and crossed the bridge even as the four silver monsters turned to pursue him across the narrow bridge that reminded him of the bridge of Khazad-dûm from that movie..

Then an idea struck him... "None of you are getting through here!" Robin shouted at them. "None of you!"

The demons charged forward, and Robin began whirling his sword around in a circle, cutting into the ground of the bridge as it came down, but not hard or deep enough to stop the blade...

A horrible noise escaped one of the vole-heads as it's beady eyes darted back and forth, but somehow its gaze never seeming to leave Robin... They roared and lunged forward and Robin snapped his sword back and sliced across the eyes of the nearest demon... It roared and flailed backwards, stopping the other three from crossing the narrow bridge. Robin then slammed his blade into the divot he had dug and then breaking into a dead run. A fraction of a second later, the bridge exploded, debris flying everywhere and the force knocking Robin to the ground. He turned and rolled towards the entrance, finding his footing as he watched the vole-demons plummet into the lava below.

Robin smirked. He had subtly attached an explosive disk on the side of the blade, close to the tip of his sword. It had mercifully gone deep and been powerful enough to break the bridge.

"Thank you, Tolkien," he said.

Robin turned and entered the temple...

**0000**

Oz removed the Fang from its pedestal and felt a strange sensation run through him. Suddenly, he felt himself placing the sword in a non-existent sheath, an instinctive motion he didn't control. Then he realized that there now WAS a sheath on his back. It wasn't attacked to anything as far as he could tell, but it was there nonetheless. Oz shrugged and ran back down the hall way. An ogresque demon attacked him, but he easily cut it down with the sword...

On his way out he happened to notice a locked cabinet, and stopped in his tracks. Upon closer examination, he found that the cabinet was labeled 'spirits'.

"Blood drinks?" he asked himself. He slipped one of his white energy coils into the lock to try and open it, and then gasped when it was repelled by a magic barrier. Oz gritted his teeth in frustration...

Suddenly, it occurred to him that he had the Fang on his back. So he removed it and cut the lock with ease. Inside the cabinet sat three shelves containing bottles of various elixirs, most of which Oz wouldn't dare touch:

_Demon's Blood (Ew.)  
Death Potion (Who would drink that?)_

_Health Potion (I'm perfectly healthy. I think.)_

_Demon Sweat (Very 'ew'..)_

_Love Potion (Redundant. Could pick up some for Robert... Nah. Most of the readers probably won't even get that inside joke.)  
Demon Viscera (Oh, come on! Where does he get this stuff?)_

_Elixir of Kinetic Force (Huh?)_

_Black Pearl Elixir (?)_

_Snape's Brew (The buh?)_

Wait... Oz looked back up at the one that read "Elixir of Kinetic Force" and read the label. (Why Blood would label his potions in such a manner, he had no idea.) The label explained that this particular potion contained the essence of speed. If one were to drink it, their body and anything they touched would suddenly go very fast.

Oz nodded somberly. He needed all the speed he could get. On one hand, it could kill him. On the other, the speed could be the difference between Trigon submerging the world in eternal hell or being defeated... Oz took a swig.

_Ack! _If the make-up of the drink didn't kill him, the bitter taste just might! He finished the bottle, and suddenly felt a surge of energy. He darted out to the R-Cycle faster than should have been possible. The Fang strapped securely—well, as securely as anything devoid of straps can be strapped—around his back, Oz pulled back the throttle and whirled the bike around.

"California, here I come," he said...

And the best word he could think of to describe the sensation he felt when he hit the highway? _Lightspeed._

**0000**

By the time Beast Boy found her, she had already found him. Him being Trevor Washington. His flesh was turned to stone just like everyone else, but he was broken. Raven cradled the upper half of the statue in her arms, the terrible plea he had last spoken to her etched into his lips...

She felt Beast Boy's comforting hand on her shoulder, and turned to look at him. "Slade killed him," she said. She felt her voice trying to break, but refused to let it.

Suddenly, Starfire was nearby. "I am sorry, Raven," she said sadly. "He was close, yes?"

"I shouldn't have let him. I shouldn't have gotten too close to him. None of this should have happened..."

"Raven, no. You mustn't blame yourself."

"I knew what would happen, I knew what I would become... but I still let him in."

"Then all those nights.." Beast Boy started... "You were with him? You could have been finding away to avoid this disaster and you spent it with some jerk who hates metahumans?" Beast Boy's voice raised as he spoke the last sentence, accusing Raven.

Raven felt the sting, but was already too hurt not to return it. She turned and glared at him. "The promise of my birth was absolute Gar! Nothing I could have done would have changed this!" Raven looked down. "Short of killing myself. And then he would have just found a new girl to seduce, and would have just sired a new portal. There was nothing I could have done—" Raven knew she wasn't being fully honest. She could have at least tried to seek help... But fear had kept her away.

"Raven..."

"I swear I hate him." She said. "I would never have even met Trevor if he hadn't been disrupting my meditation that night. I never would have been born, never would have brought his upon the world. It's his fault..."

And then, like a bolt of lighting, it hit her. "It is his fault..."Raven smiled. For the first time in her life, it _really_ sank in. "It _is_ his fault."

"Of course it is," a new smug voice said... A very familiar smug voice: Cyborg. "What do you say we go make him pay for it?"

Raven looked up to see Victor standing nearby, his repairman—Ragnarök—beside him, extending a mechanical hand down to her. Tears filled Raven's eyes now, but she let them get no farther as she allowed Cyborg to help her up.

"Thank you, my friends," she said. "All of you. But this is something I don't think you can help me with."

"Raven, we are here for you," Starfire said.

"And we'll do whatever we can," Gar said, "even if it kills us."

"We didn't come this far to give up, did we?" Cyborg said.

"Raven," Star said. She extended a hand that held the metal shard, now stained orange by the remnants of the Tamaranian blood upon it... "I don't know where this came from. But I thought it might help." Raven held out her hand, and Starfire placed it in, the cold metal against Raven's skin a stark contrast to the sensation of magic radiating from the blade fragment... and to the warmth radiating from her friends.

"Thank you," she said. Black energy surrounded Raven, and she flew off.

She felt him, off in the desert... she would go there... So focused she was, she didn't even feel the Titans following her.

**0000**

As Oz blurred forward, back on the R-Cycle, the entire stretch of the country between the coast and Jason Blood's house seemed a huge blur to him, and he was dead thankful that Jason had moved out of Gotham after that incident with Zatanna...

Soon, he realized he was nearing the place where the Booster-Gold shaped projectile had slammed into the ground in font of him.. And so focused he was on looking at the ground for holes that he almost didn't notice the man standing in front of him. Moving at normal speed, he would have had plenty of time to react, but at this enhanced speed, he had just a fraction of a second. Thinking quickly, Oz hurled the R-Cycle down and jumped off, using the white strands of energy, to keep him from becoming road-paste...

He shot to his feet and immediately darted over to the man he had nearly flattened... He was wearing blue and gold armor, and looked remarkably like Booster Gold...

"Who are you?" the man asked. "Dang, you were going fast."

"I should be asking you that question. Why are you dressed like a superhero and how did you survive the changing of the world?"

"How did you?" he asked.

"I..." Oz trailed off, realizing he didn't have a terribly good answer himself. "I was with the Titans," he said, forgetting to add the 'Teen' descriptor.

"Really, well, nice to meet you," the man said, extending a hand. "I'm Booster Gold. Me and Wonder Woman—my girlfriend—were fighting this huge Math Demon and then I got knocked way out here..."

He looked around quizzically. "Where are we exactly?"

Oz buried his forehead in his hand momentarily. Wonder Woman _his _girlfriend? Not. Likely. "I think this is what is left of Arizona," he said at length.

"Arizona?" Gold arched an eyebrow. "Didn't the Japanese destroy that during the second World War?" Gold asked in all seriousness. "I thought it all sank into the ocean and created Pearl Harbor."

Oz facevaulted. Had so much important history been forgotten in just 1000 years or was Booster Gold just an idiot? Then, he remember something Booster had said earlier. "What do you mean by 'math demon'?" He asked.

"Some big red guy with antlers, four eyes. Called him self Algeb, or Geom, or.. _Trigon,_ that was it. Trigon the Terrible. I was trying to get my android Skeets to look up information on how he was defeated, but we got separated by the demon's laser vision, then I tried to trap him in a box, but it didn't work and he hit me. I really need to get back there and fight him. There are a lot of people in danger, but my flight ring was destroyed. I need a lift."

"Did you suffer a blow to the head?" Oz asked.

"Probably. I don't remember anything between being hit by him and almost being flattened by you..."

Oz sighed, and ran over to pick up the R-Cycle. "Climb on. But hold on tight. I drank this potion that makes anything I touch go really fast."

"How fast?" Booster Gold asked nervously, setting down behind Oz and firmly securing his energy hooks into the sides of the cycle.

In response, Oz gunned it. _Lightspeed._

**0000**

John's arm fell limp as the last of the energy used to toss Trigon dissipated, and he began to fall unconscious, and fall from the sky...

"John!" Shayera said as she caught him. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine," John said tiredly. "But we have to go... get him... or he'll just come right back."

"I know..."

John looked at his ring, and saw it glowing with energy, and with a bit of will power, reignited the forcefield that kept him airborne. "Where's the lantern battery?" he asked Hawkgirl.

Shayera held it up, and then gasped. "Oh my..."

"Judas Priest!" John blurted... The entire thing was inert, devoid of energy...

"He must have put up one_ d'rer_ of a resistance," Shayera said.

"I guess us Earthlings are the only Lanterns crazy enough to use our rings like this," he said, referring not only to himself, but to Hal Jordan and Kyle Rainer as well. "Where is Diana..."

"Down there," Shayera said, pointing. "I think she's hurt pretty bad."

"What about the Question and Booster Gold?"

"Not seen them," Shayera said sadly.

John gritted his teeth. He would have to make Trigon pay for all this. Flying down the two discovered Diana, firmly held in the wall of what was once a Wayne Industries building. And since all of them now knew who Bruce Wayne _really_ was, they immediately saw a sad irony in Wonder Woman being smashed into Bruce's building.

"Diana," Shayera said. "Are you okay? Wake up."

Wonder Woman's eyes slowly opened, and she struggled to free herself from the wall... "Is it over?" she asked finally puling free. Her body was roughed up, but she was still somehow utterly beautiful. The blessing of being an ageless Amazonian immortal, John thought.

"I wish," John said. "I threw him out of town—"

"Literally," Shayera interrupted.

"—but we have to go finish the job..."

"What of Q and Booster?" Diana asked.

"MIA," John said, flying off. The women followed him, and together they made their way out to the dessert, where Paratrigon stood in the crater his landing made, his arms outstretched... He seemed to be in some sort of trance...

And then something very bad happened:

The dessert around Trigon began to rumble, an earthquake forming, shaking the massive rock formations all over the dessert. Then the ground split open, and thousands upon thousands of _things_, creatures, began to pour out of the gaping scars in the earth...

"GO, LEGIONS! BURN!" Paratrigon bellowed. "Enslave the cosmos, make them WORSHIP the fear I bring."

"Oh, crud," John said.

"I don't care if he has a million of them!" Diana said. "We fight!" Wonder Woman charged forward, bashing the little demons with her powerful fists, blocking the long range shots with her silver bracelets.

John nodded at Shayera. "She's right. If Parallax is in control now, Trigon feeds off fear. Bury it and we can fight him..."

A massive Griffin demon bore it's claws at Shayera, but she flew over and smashed it's head in with her mace. "You don't have to tell me twice," she said, and flew forward, towards Trigon. John activated his ring and followed her, green fire burning around him.

Just then, a massive wave of black energy tore through the sky, and all the attacking demon's caught in the blast, and the Leaguers looked down to see a tiny figure standing near a rock outcropping, her arms extended towards Trigon.

"Is that Raven?" Diana asked.

"She's going to get herself killed!" Hawkgirl said.

"But did you see the size of that blast?" John asked. He then blasted an attacking bat-demon, tearing it to shreds. "She seemed to actually hurt him."

**0000**

John didn't know the half of it. Even the mighty mace that killed Icthultu (with help from Solomon Grundy) was like a minor scratch to Trigon. But Raven could feel the blast reverberate through him, and could feel the shock and pain—a level of pain Trigon hadn't felt for centuries. And Raven could only smirk.

"Father!" she shouted at him, "I'm here now! And I've come to renounce you."

Raven extended her hands forward again, and let her hate for Trigon surge forward, her emotions amplifying her power. "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Suddenly the fight was on. Trigon took the second blast with a grunt, and formed two massive fireballs that he hurled at Raven. "Foolish girl! Fear will rule all!"

"TRIGON!" Raven shouted. "Drop the act! I know you would never let yourself be controlled by some fear-bug. I can feel you inside, pulling the strings."

Paratrigon honestly, for a moment, almost seemed surprised. But then, a sinister smile stretched across his face. "Very good, dear daughter," he said. "Indeed it would be hard to hide me from you. You're senses are attuned to my power. Now all that is left is for you to embrace it again."

"Nevermore!" Raven shouted, and blasted him again. She flew high in the air. "You've taken away Trevor, you've tried to take away my friends... you even tried to take my mind and give it to that MONSTER with my face."

Raven blasted him again, causing his head to snap back. But.. the echoes of pain she had felt the first time seemed to be smaller. "Daughter," he smirked. "Your hate only seals your fate. How can you dream to strike me down with the very power I gave you?"

Raven gasped. "I—" she hovered backwards, suddenly unnerved by Trigon's smirk.

"In hatred you can no more strike me down than you could stop a tsunami with a squirt gun, or an inferno with a match. Your powers are mine, Raven, and though you surprised me at first..."

"No!" Raven's heart filled with fear, and though she knew some of it was emanating from the creature of fear that Trigon had absorbed, the first grain of it, she knew, was real...

"Yes, daughter. And as for love?" Trigon bared his teeth. "Love is weak. And I believe I recall that your love... died"

And then, Trigon's power lashed forward, striking Raven's mind, and filling it with memories. Trevor...  
And then, his end, when Slade had cut him in two and left his dying form hang from her arms, grasping at her shoulders, pleading for help, for answers, for anything. Raven did.. didn't.. know what he had wanted...

And then, she fought back. How DARE he? "NO!" Raven shouted, "You will not do this to me! AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!" And with the energy, she hurled the fragment of the sword that Oz had given her, contained in the tip of the attack.

The black and red energy beam spiraled out from Raven's hand and struck him square in the centre of his four eyes. Trigon grunted, staggering backwards... Raven fired again, the spiral drill aimed at the same spot. But this time, Trigon defended, a red energy engulfing him and causing a counter-beam that blasted Raven's energy back at her, and caused Raven to reel from the shockwave. As best she could tell, the metal shard was still embedded in his skin...

"INSOLENT CHILD!" Trigon bellowed. His death glare lashed out, blasting Raven against a cliff. And then she fell towards the ground, landing in a heap. "I gave you a chance to join me willingly, but I see it now. You, child, are a failure. A mistake, just like your mother. No matter what, you will always reject my power over you. And for it, I curse the witch Azar and all those who followed her. May they reap in death the misery they have caused me in life."

Raven just stared up at him, aching all over, unsure of what to do. "The only failure here is you," she said sadly.

Trigon snarled and kicked the ground in front of her, causing it to explode upward. When she got to near the level of his navel, a force from his. "Daughter of Eve. Mortal flesh. Weak," Trigon said with disgust. You reject the power and majesty I gave you, I, Trigon the Terrible. But look at this land!" Trigon spread his arms, and waved over the whole area, distant, twisted Jump City, the arid desert now devoid of all life. The blood red sky. The gargantuan pool of magma that was once the Pacific Ocean caused the sunset to blur in the distance from the heat...

"This is all my doing! This marvelous reshaping of the Earth! What can be said of this! What greater work can anyone on this wretched sphere claim?"

Raven stared coldly at him, but said nothing. Then, she saw it... faint, but there... far in the distance... and before she realized what it was, it was upon them...

_SCCH-KRRSCCTH!..._

A bright flash blinded Raven, and Trigon's roar of pain prevented her from hearing anything else... But when the light receded, she opened her eyes, and saw it: Oz, standing atop Trigon's head, between his antlers, holding a sword...

A sword impaled into Trigon's forehead, straight through his now-shattered chakra. Blood dripped from the open wound, and Trigon bared all his fangs. The look on his face a hideous mask of pain and rage.

The blood continued to drip...

"WHO DARES!" Trigon bellowed. "WHO DARES MAR THE MIGHTY VISAGE OF TRIGON THE TERRIBLE!"

And then, Oz smirked. "**'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings! Look on my works, ye mighty...**" he shouted. Then Oz yanked the sword from his head with a _SCKTHCCCH.. _

"**And despair," ** Raven finished for him quietly.

**0000**

"Actually," Slade said, "I'm not such a nice guy myself. He pressed the button on his detonator, and a door exploded. His opponent was instantly barbecued by what lay behind it. Slade was more interested in what had come out. One of the white beams of energy slammed into him, repairing his suit, restoring his flesh and blood. Slade was finally truly alive once more.

Slade glanced at the smoldering armor of the guard, and saw his weapon, the massive battle ax. He picked the instrument of death up, and turned to leave. "Don't get up," he said. "I'll let myself out."

**0000**

Elsewhere, a brilliant white flash of light burned through the chapel beneath the library, and there Robin stood. And in his hand he carried a box containing five rings... "I risked everything for these," he said. "It had better be worth it."

* * *

"Ozymandias" written by Percy Bysshe Shelly, who died in 1822, so YES, it is public domain! 

Ozymandias the character created by Eric Merseraeu and Chrissie Brynn. Used with permission.

I don't own it, folks. I just play in the garden started by Wolfman, Perez, and Murakami. Stay tuned for the last chapter of my Trigon arc coming... whenever I get it written. Which will hopefully be soon.


	14. Trigon: Undone

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Fourteen: Trigon... Undone**

The spasm that wracked ever last of the demons in Trigon's army must have hit John pretty hard, because he found himself waking up, and when he did, he felt cold hands touch him on the arm via a hole torn in his lantern suit. Well, more like due to most of the sleeve being ripped off. He started to blast, but stopped himself when he realized the hands he felt were Shayera's.

Not mincing words, she looked rough. Her arms were bruised, her shirt was torn, and she looked as though she had taken at least one blow to the face... But somehow John still managed to see her beauty through all that. "Are you okay, John?" she asked after a minute of awkward silence.

"I'm fine," he lied. Standing up, John realized his legs were about to give out, and would have fallen if the energy from his ring hadn't caught him.

"No, you're not," Shayera said firmly. "But I don't think we have time to rest."

Shayera pointed towards the spasming demons on the ground... and John saw that whatever had happened to them was wearing off, because they were getting up. A hideous insect demon's wings buzzed loudly and it lunged at John and Shayera. John brought his ring up to defend, and Shayera her mace. But Wonder Woman slammed into it from the side, knocking it away and punching a hole in it's abdomen. Black blood ran out; Wonder Woman glared angrily at the stain on her hand, wiped the blood on the ground.

"Foul beast," she said bitterly. Suddenly, her bracelets moved quickly, spinning her whole body around to intercept a projectile from a soldier in the demon army.

John extended his arm and blasted the soldier away and Shayera flew forward to smash some flanking foot soldiers, smashing them to death with her mace. A great horned beast leapt to attack her, and Shayera brought the mace down on its head, shattering it's skull. But her arms took Newton's second law and ran with it, and the force of the blow broke a spike off her mace...

More demons began to encircle them, and the Justice Leaguers were pushed back, until John and the girls were standing back to back, surrounded by an army of small demons... But some victories are short lived, because suddenly, Trigon bellowed a call in rage, something like a mighty roar from an ancient hell-lion, that shook the planet, or so it felt. And then the demons began retreating towards the distant towering Trigon, for what, who could say?

"Should we follow them?" Wonder Woman asked, submitting her rank to John's military mind.

"I think they're trying to reinforce Trigon," John said. "Whatever that spasm a minute ago was, I think someone caused it by hitting Trigon hard."

"Then we have to stop them and give whoever is attacking a chance to destroy him," Shayera said, flying at the fleeing demons.

Then, things got complicated, as a blast from nowhere singed Shayera's wings and caused her to go flying backwards. John shouted her name, and caught her in his ring... she didn't seem to be hurt badly, just addled.

Unfortunately, the JLU had a new problem. A massive winged demon came down, bearing four eyes like Trigon and wielding a large trident. "Lord Trigon shall not be disturbed, mortals," it said. "Face the wrath of the ancient curse, and face your own inner demons. So says Xirtam, general of Trigon."

The flame-coated demon who called itself Xirtam then swung it's mighty Trident towards the three, and a ball of energy lanced out. It hit the ground in between them and melted out into an ornate, runic circle on the ground.

"This looks like one of those magic circles that Dr. Fate uses," Shayera observed. She held up her mace in preparation for whatever trap the demon had constructed, but Xirtam was too swift, blasting downward and knocking the mace from Shayera's hand; it fell to the ground outside the circle.

"I leave you to your vain struggle, mortals," Xirtam said. "I must aid my master in battle." And with that, the demon flew off.

Hawkgirl darted to the edge of the circle, but before she could reach her mace, the power of the circle erupted from the ground, sending shock waves of magic that John's ring couldn't stop coursing through the three heroes...

After a flash of light, the trio came to... and received a massive shock...

"Hello," John Stewart said wickedly... to John Stewart. While the later was clad in his standard green and black, the newcomer was devoid of any color except for his glowing red eyes, his suit was an exact pastern replica the the one warn by Green Lantern traitor Sinestro.

John looked around and saw that Shayera and Wonder Woman had similar doppelgängers , Shayera's dressed out in full Thanagarian battle armor, metal wings and all, and Wonder Woman's lavishly clothed in the raiment of the dark god of Tartarus, Hades. Their eyes also glowed red.

"Well, well, traitor," Dark Shayera said. "It's about time you unleashed your darker side."

The Dark Lantern said nothing, but instead blasted at John with a ring, its power red with Trigon's evil.

Wonder Woman and her dark self stared each other down, then the dark Wonder Woman's fist snapped out, slamming into Diana's face and blasting her backwards.

John's ring blazed out and drew clear battle lines between the Leaguers and their evil selves. But this wouldn't be an easy battle. After all, some victories are short lived.

**0000**

Oz jumped towards an antler as Trigon shook his head, trying to send his attacker plummeting to his death. The blade in his hand flashed out and Trigon's right antler fell to the ground, crushing some demons below it. Trigon took a step back, just as Oz leapt from his head, but then, Trigon smashed his fist into the bold—some would say stupid—teen and the devil's aura raged around his fist. Oz was blasted away from Trigon, and Raven gasped.

She flew up, focusing her energies into a telekinetic safety net, and pulled him in. He looked up at her with a smirk. "Thanks for the save," he said.

"I take it you read Watchmen," Raven said in return, not knowing what else she could say to the man who had just put a blade through the head of Trigon the Terrible.

"Only the greatest comic ever," he said. Raven and Oz hovered down to one of the high mesas in the barren desert, and watched as Trigon staggered, his hands on the ground. He was breathing heavily, and his aura was flaring in random patterns, a maelstrom of unpredictably, slamming into the ground and causing massive storms of dust and rock to explode forth, and smashing the rock formations around him.

"What is going on?" Oz asked after a while. The lesser demons on the ground around him had spasmed out of control, but they were starting to recover. Trigon himself seemed to have stabalized, but there was a faint yellow aura around him...

Raven stared out at him, as he thrashed and shivered, the look on his face utterly foreign to his kind. And yet Raven could feel it, she knew what it was, and knew how effective it could be.

"He... he's afraid."

Oz looked at her skeptically. "Afraid? Trigon doesn't become afraid. He—"

"It's the chakra." She said.

"Huh?"

"You destroyed his chakra with that sword. And chakra..."

"Chakra control your emotions, help you hold your powers in, right?"

"Yes," Raven said. "And it was the only thing keeping Parallax in check."

"Parallax? That could complic...**_ what did you just say?_**"

"The chakra was the only think keeping Parallax in check," Raven repeated.

"P-Para...llax?"

"Parallax," Raven said, feeling as though she were talking to a child.

Oz visibly paled."You mean giant-space-bug-who-caused-Hal-Jordan-to-go-insane-and-kill-everyone-he-cared-about Parallax? That THING is in TRIGON?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about, or who Hal Jordan is," Raven answered. "But Parallax was a legend in Azarath, an ancient and evil creature to be avoided. I wasn't here when they merged, but I knew instantly what it was. Such pure fear..." Raven shuddered as she trailed off. "Trigon was a fool to ally himself with such a creature."

"Maybe. I mean he is obviously in pain at the moment..." Oz leaned back and stared at the massive demon in the distance, still unable to fully control the sentient fear. "But something about this feels way too easy." said Oz. "He's on the ropes, but how do we destroy him?"

"The sword," Raven said. "That's the one from this world, isn't it. The same sword that the metal shard you gave me came from. You can use it, destroy my father. It's how you did so before, isn't it."

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Oz said, and Raven could feel and hear the sadness in his voice. "I can't fully use this one because I already did so in my own world. It... told me..."

Raven looked down, her mind searching for an answer. "Could I use it?" She asked.

"Is your heart pure?" Oz asked, already knowing the answer. "That's what it takes, and if it isn't, the sword will kill you."

"Are you claiming YOU have a pure heart?" Raven shot back.

"Not anymore," Oz said. "It doesn't matter; even if I do or did, we have to find someone else to..." suddenly, his words were cut off by an explosion, and the two looked out over the battlefield below to see all of Trigon's army retreating from the battle with the Justice League, moving towards Trigon, though the League themselves were too far away to be seen clearly.

"What's going on?" Oz said.

"It's as if he's calling for help," Raven said. "Oh my..."

Suddenly, the entire area was wreathed in flame, as a new terrible demonic figure burned into the sky in front of Raven and Ozymandias. "I am Xirtam, general of the Dread Lord Trigon, Scion of the Terrible," the new demon said.

"My father's lackey," Raven said bitterly. "You have no idea who you're up against." It was mostly a bluff, but something in Oz's eye let her know he approved. Then Xirtam brandished his dark trident and sent Oz flying from the top of the mesa, sword in hand. And oddly, Xirtam went after him.

"You would would dare bare fangs at my god!" he cried after Oz. "You who bring that accursed sword to bear against him! I shall grind you into the earth and flay your body. You shall suffer!"

And that was all Raven heard of it. She had been given a chance to destroy Trigon, and she had to take it.

**0000**

Oz brought his sword up, shielding himself from the Xirtam's trident, and striking again as the two clashed in the air. The force of the blow propelled the two away from each other, and Oz hit the ground first, using his white talent to spring away from certain death.

He rolled across the sharp rocks, battered but not defeated, and looked up in time to see Xirtam's mighty trident swing at his head, and he blocked it again with the Fang, instinctively knowing how to use it, and realizing it was the magic of the weapon and not any skill that he possessed saving his life.

Nevertheless, he would make do with what he had. Xirtam charged again, and Oz dived out of the way, launching himself at a nearby tall rock, the bottom of which he sliced through. It fell on Xirtam, but exploded on impact from the heat.

"Try to silence me with mere stone, do you? Foolish mortal. You shall suffer!"

Oz raised his blade and smirked. "You think you can make me suffer? Come on!" Inside his chest, his heart was pounding so hard, he thought it would explode and save the demon the trouble.

**0000**

"This is hopeless," Robin snarled as he entered the plaza below the parlor, the one that had marked so many milestones in their career: it was the place where they had first battled the Hive, the place where Robin had first laid eyes on Starfire. Now it was a twisted ruin, corrupted by Trigon's evil power. Patrons, turned to stone, could still be seen, staring in terror at the monster that had emerged in their city. Some hadn't even looked, and had just kept eating, the pizza slices now stone daggers in their hands...

But Trigon was nowhere to be seen. Robin removed his Bat-grapple and launched himself to the highest building, and continued to do so until he had a high vantage point... And then, he saw faint signs of battle off in the northeast, towards the dessert. And as Robin surveyed the swath of destruction that led out that way, he understood. "The League must have moved him out that way to avoid any more damage to the city," Robin said aloud. How they had managed to do so, Robin had no idea.

But that was the direction he needed to go, he realized. Slowly making his way to the top of the Wayne Enterprises building, where he had trashed both Bruce's sign and his friends (along with their trust in him.) Robin tapped a button on his belt to activate his glider, and blasted off towards the distant battle.

**0000**

Fists clashed as Shayera and her evil alter ego struggled in the air, but Shayera shrugged off the pain and smashed her doppleganger in the mouth. Evil Shayera flew backwards and drew a Thanagarian blaster, using it to fire red beams of energy, which Shayera flew in erratic patterns—mimicking someone other than herself as best she could—to avoid. Every time she had tried to lunge for her mace, the evil self had prevented her from getting to it, but she had to try again...

This time it was no exception, because the high-tech wings the dark self possessed enabled her to fly faster.

"Traitors have no right to bear the might of Thanagarian weaponry," the evil self said. "Nor do they consort with the enemy."

As if to emphasize her meaning, Shayera heard John scream behind her.

"_H'thgor Ta'nana 'tar!_" Shayera snarled in rage, blasting forward and trying to claw out the glowing red eyes of the evil Shayera. Her nails dug into the dark self's face, but, not long, when Evil Shayera batted her hands away and grabbed Shayera's wrist as the two locked in a power struggle.

"You can't win. You're beaten, exhausted," the evil half taunted. "Give up." As if to prove her point, she started pushing Hawkgirl backwards, overpowering her exhausted good half. An evil smile stretched across the face of the gray impostor, a sadistic glint her eyes.

Shayera promptly wiped it off by kneeing her in the stomach, then swinging back by pushing forward on the dark self's arms and then kicked her in the same place with the toe of her boot, and then twisted her foot to stomp the wound with her heel for good measure, and threw surprised evil half over her head. Evil Shayera flew several meters before righting herself and glaring furiously at Hawkgirl.

Hawkgirl had a big smirk on her face. "That one I learned from Batman."

Unfortunately, Diana and John weren't doing as well. The Dark Diana not only possessed Hades fashion sense, but seemed to have his power as well. Fire exploded around her when she summoned it, and Diana's lasso had no effect on the dark being. "Gifts from our father," the dark Wonder Woman explained.

"Hades is _not_ my father!" Diana shot back, blasting forward and trading blows in the air with her dark half. "Hippolyta raised me! Hades had nothing to do with it!"

Dark Diana looked grave. "I hate to sound cliché," she said in mock seriousness, "but search your feelings. You know he was being honest. Hades helped sculpt you, and one day, he will claim you as his own."

"Never," Diana said blocking a duo of fire-blasts with her bracelets. "I would sacrifice my immortality and perish with the rest of the world of men than allow that."

And so the two clashed again, the resounding explosion of Amazonian strength blasting the figures away from each other... Dark Diana recovered, but Wonder Woman did not, slamming into the sheer rock face and then falling to the ground. But rather than attacking the others, the evil version of Wonder Woman hovered down and stood next to Shayera's mace, not daring to touch it, but guarding it from the other Leaguers.

John and the Dark Lantern clashed in the air, their complementary colored rings spewing energy that collided in the air making explosions the likes of which are rarely seen outside anime. But John had used his ring to hurl the massive bulk of Trigon, whereas the only limit to the evil half's ring seemed to be his own anger.

Dark Lantern's twisted imagination formed a sick and enormous weapon of torture, a blade the likes of which are normally seen only in movies, and swung it down at John, who deflected it as best he could with a massive sword of his own. The two energy blades clashed in mid air, and the lanterns went into a flurry of fencing moves, until John blasted back from a call so close the blade dragged along his chest, cutting the lantern symbol in two. The power from the ring stitched up John's cut, but the near miss unnerved him.

And it lasted only a second, but that was half a second too long, when the Dark Lantern's ring constructed battle armor around him. The evil half began to pummel John, knocking him to the ground. John tried to stand and instantly knew he couldn't. He tried to roll over and instantly knew his right arm was broken... So he forced himself over with his left arm, and stared at the blood red sky as his evil half walked over to him.

And finally, he spoke. "I guess this is how it ends, huh? Say hello to Shayera's good half for me." And with that, Dark Lantern's ring formed a massive battle hammer, the business end a spike, and raised it to slay his good half...

"This is how it ends, for you!" A new voice shouted, and suddenly, orange hands attached to orange arms wrapped around the evil lantern's neck, and Starfire suddenly appeared behind the Dark Lantern. And with a fierceness in her eyes that frightened John, the Tamaranian snapped the Evil John's neck, killing it instantly. It burst into a red fire and flew back to John, slamming into his chest. A glow surrounded the Lantern's body, and when it faded, John's outfit and body were as good as new.

"Thanks," he said, as Starfire extended a hand to help him up...

"Halt!" shouted the evil Wonder Woman suddenly, leaving her post to charge at Starfire. "You stay out of this, interloper!" Her speed was amazing, and her amazonian strength far surpassed Starfire's alien might. Diana slammed into Koriand'r, blasting her back against a large rock and raising her fist for the kill...

When suddenly, the spike that had broken off Shayera's mace earlier slammed into the side of her head. Dark Diana fell and died, and in a flash of red light, she returned to revive the injured Wonder Woman.

John looked over and saw the Question, the impression of a smirk hiding underneath his faceless visage. He walked over to Starfire and John, tossing a rock up and down in his hand. "Old throwing arm still has it," he said.

"Question!" John blurted. "Where have you been?"

"Hiding," replied the question, instantly and unapologetically. "This battle is far beyond me, so I observed, watched, waited for the right time to strike. Oh yeah. And I brought some reinforcements."

Vic Sage motioned to the rocky hill behind him, and there, the setting sun partially silhouetting them, stood the Teen Titans, the next generation.

For the first time, John knew the future was in good hands.

"After all," Collin spoke into the silence. "This is a Teen Titans story. We have to be the heroes. Besides, Chaltab doesn't want us to be deleted for being in the wrong section."

Everyone else face vaulted.

"Dude, that was so inappropriate," Beast Boy said. "Forth wall stays up at serious moments!"

"Enough chatter," Cyborg said. "We have things to do."

"Our friend is right," Starfire said. "Raven is returned to normal, but she rushed to face her father alone, and I fear for her safety."

"We all do, Kori," Cyborg said. "Now lets go kick some demon butt."

"And hope Robin isn't dead," Beast Boy added grimly.

**0000**

"I'm not dead?" Robin blurted, opening his eyes. On his way to the battle, he had flown right into a dust storm, which had eventually transformed into a maelstrom of flying rocks and debris, and Robin had thought for sure he would crash and burn.

He hadn't, but he wasn't out of the proverbial water yet. The rocks had torn a hole in his jet-glider's fuel tank, and he had to take it off immediately or risk it exploding. And explode it did, seconds after Robin had gotten it off.

**0000**

Shayera and her evil self were still trying to kill each other when three golden energy beams tore through the evil half's weapons and a blue beam of sonic energy slammed into her back, causing her to scream in pain...

"What treachery is this?" Blackhawkgirl blurted as she span around.

"I thought I was the traitor!" Shayera said, driving her fist into her dark doppleganger's face. Then she looked down, where Cyborg and Booster Gold stood, waving. "Thanks."

"No problem," Cyborg called up to her. Shayera flew up and then dropped straight down, driving her foot into Evil Shayera's face, smashing the heavier id-being to the ground. But Blackhawkgirl dragged Shayera with her, and the two began rolling across the dirt, smashing their fists and wings and knees—and anything else they could find—into the other trying to do some damage... and then, Shayera saw her undefended mace lying on the ground next to Beast Boy's foot, and looked up at him long enough to see he was smirking, and knew it was partly to hide the pain his arms must have felt if he carried that thing by himself...

Shayera nodded, and grabbed the handle, removing the hand from Evil Shayera's neck had given the dark self the ability to wrestle some control and flip Hawkgirl over again. Evil Shayera looked up to see that she was surrounded by League and Titans, and let out a Thanagarian curse. Then Hawkgirl promptly brained her with the mace, its magic-disrupting properties breaking the bonds of arcane energies that held the evil self together...

**0000**

Robin landed on one of the airborne rocks, and leapt from flying stone to flying stone, fully aware of how tenuous his perch was. And yet somehow, he could see in the distance, a mesa. A mesa where Raven stood, alone...

That was where he had to go.

Robin started forward, hoping the spiraling motion of the wind would help rather than hurt his cause. As he jumped, sometimes falling and sometimes taking a hit right to the face, he realized this must have been how Terra felt the first time she ran the Titans obstacle course...

"Don't get distracted remembering the past," he told himself. "Press on."

Robin jumped to a large rock coming at him, so he jumped to it and ran straight up its curved surface, feeling the strong wind blow it one direction: in concentric circles around the distant Trigon... He considered how the heck he was capable of doing this in a wind strong enough to blow rocks around, but then, he thought better of questioning his path.

Suddenly, a sharp rock whizzed by his face and he felt a trickle of blood run from his forehead. The full danger of his path finally sank in to his delirious, dehydrated mind, and he forced himself to focus, and secured the box with the rings all the tighter around his waste...

"I'm coming, Raven!" he shouted.

**0000**

Raven hadn't heard a word of it, of course. The maelstrom had started and Xirtam's attack on Oz had left her alone and weaponless against her father. But what could she do but try?

"Father!" She shouted, using telepathy to make sure he heard her. "I can end the terror you suffer! Surrender, and I will destroy you and end your torment." Raven's offer wasn't in the least motivated by sympathy for Trigon, and she was sure he knew it. But perhaps this terror was the one thing that could motivate Trigon to surrender...

"No, daughter," he replied. "You think me so weak?" Slowly, Trigon stood, his muscles quivering, his face a terrible grimace, blood now staining most of it. "I will show you! I am Trigon the Terrible! Mightiest of the Arch-Demons."

"You're a fool," Raven said. "You suffer needlessly, and your suffering brings only more!"

"SILENCE!" Trigon bellowed, the ground rumbling and red fire arcing in circles around him. Suddenly, a serene calm came over the Eighth Devil and, to Raven's horror he smiled.

"Yes," he said, but it was clear he wasn't talking to Raven. "That would be acceptable."

Raven arched an eyebrow at him, but then, Trigon snarled, "SO BE IT, PARALLAX!"

Then, he began to glow yellow, and suddenly, the wave of demons he had summed to him was upon him, wrapping their bodies around Trigon's own and tainting the yellow aura orange, then red, crimson, and finally, a terrible red so dark it looked almost black.

"No!" Raven said when she realized what was happening. "God help us..."

Raven looked out and saw the growing army coming closer, all of them joining into the mass that Trigon was covered in, and she flew down into the wave and began blasting. And she let all her friends know what was happening—a telepathic cry for help.

_My friends, listen to me. Trigon has played everyone for a fool. Even Parallax. He deceived the fear-creature, and tricked it into merging with him, only to use that energy to fuel an act of desperation: to seal Parallax inside him, and ascend to his final omnipotence. Trigon and Parallax will be completely one being, and have the soul energy of all his army. This__must_ _**not **happen. Destroy his army, delay it, stop it at all costs. I will do whatever I can, and I must ask you all to do the same._

_Take care..._

**0000**

"Raven..." Beast Boy said as the message echoed through their minds. "Raven needs us..."

"We all heard it, BB," Cyborg said. He turned to the Green Lantern and nodded. "You heard her, Mr. Stewart. We have to stop that army or Trigon's god complex becomes a reality."

Starfire's face twisted into a somber mask, and the tension in Collin's made it obvious the battle switch had been flipped. There would be no more jokes from him till the job was done.

"We're here!" John shouted, as the ring-bubble with all the Titans and Leaguers (minus the Question) broke into the swarm of devilish monsters charging towards Trigon. "I've modified the quantum wavelength so that we can fire through it," John said. "Blast them!"

The Titans with long range attacks, as well as Booster Gold, complied, and began shooting energy waves and rock daggers out of the field, tearing into the dark hordes, but to little effect.

"John," Diana said, "This isn't going to work. We can't kill them all; we have to stop them, or delay them somehow until Raven does what she has too..."

Suddenly, the energy field around them all flickered and everyone gasped...

"What's going on?" Cyborg asked.

"My ring—it must have been damaged... or used up lifting Trigon."

"Not good," Beast Boy said.

"John, drop us out of the bubble and recharge. We'll hold them off until you can make a barrier."

John nodded at Wonder Woman and the bubble faded away, the Titans all landing—Beast Boy in animal form and Collin on a cushioned mound of sand he'd constructed—and starting to attack immediately. "Titans, together!" Cyborg shouted.

So the Titans charged into battle, as did the women and Booster Gold, shooting at anything that gave an inkling of attacking John...

"Crap," Collin said, "there is too much sand. I can't hit with anything solid."

"Deal with it!" Cyborg shot at him over his shoulder, just as a griffin demon tackled him and tried to peck out his biological eye. Beast Boy smashed into the beast as a gorilla and then tore its throat out as a raptor.

"Kid," Shayera shouted at Ragnarök, "you can move the earth, right?"

"Yeah," he said, blasting at a_ hell hound _with a gust of sand that did little but annoy it.

Shayera stuck it with her mace, then said to Collin, "Try making a sand-wall to slow them down!" She shouted.

"I don't think I can—"

"Do it!" Shayera insisted.

"Exactly," Collin said, mistaking her command for a question.

Shayera smashed another attacker with her mace and and lifted Rag by the shoulders. "Try anyway," she almost yelled in his ear.

**0000**

And Oz and Xirtam still battled, Oz growing wearier by the minute.

"Your bones are weak, your muscles useless," Xirtam said. "Surrender now, boy, I'm quite ruthless."

"Etrigan wannabe," Oz mocked, charging forward, his legs aching as though they had atrophied. He swung his blade at the demon, snarling and grunting to hide his fatigue, but Xirtam wasn't impressed, and smashed the Trident town at him. Oz blocked with the Fang, but the blow sent the sword spiraling from his hand, and Oz dived for it, only to have Xirtam overtake him and stab down, pinning him to the ground through his jacket, the prongs barely avoiding his sides.

"Nice aim," Oz said nervously...

"I missed."

Oz gulped... "Could have fooled me."

"Foolish mortal! Could you be dumber? I told you once I'd make you suffer!"

"Seriously, stop that. You can't rhyme." Oz tried to jest, but he didn't have it in him, and the heat from the demon's skin started to make him sweat...

"I shall destroy you, thou worthless scoffer. For my bad rhymes, please, blame the author!"

Now Oz was really mad, and Xirtam jerked the spear out of the ground and raised it high, ready to bring it down and destroy his enemy. "Now you don't even fight!" Xirtam gloated.

"Actually," Oz said, "I was just formulating a plan." As the trident came down, Oz rolled out of the way, and crossed his arms, one shot white energy lines down to Xirtam's crotch, and grabbing everything it could find, yanked really hard. The demon howled in pain, as Oz grabbed the Fang with the other set of lines and spinning around fast.

He jabbed the blade straight through Xirtam's throat, and the massive demon staggered back, gasping... "What!" he gurgled. "NO! YOU..gl WERE TO..gl **_SUFFER!_**"

"While lying on the ground, I formulated a plan. Booster Gold told me what Cyborg had done to Trigon earlier, and I figured, hey, if it worked against you boss, why not against you?" Oz said this with a smirk. "And honestly, you can't make me suffer." Oz grabbed the handle of the blade. "Human beings are the meanest, nastiest, most awful species to ever walk the earth, and I've survived the worst of them. To me and this planet, you are nothing. Remember that when you get back to hell!"

Oz jerked the blade, and sliced clean through Xirtam's neck. The severed head hit the ground with a thud, and the fire that covered his body went out.

Then Oz promptly collapsed onto the ground, and fell asleep.

**0000**

Robin landed atop the mesa with a thud, and darted to the edge to see where Raven had gone. He had heard her message too, and worried that she couldn't do it, that he would be too late...

The entire area was a war-zone, covered in the charred bodies of Trigon's minions. And at the edge of the maelstrom was a horrible, enormous cocoon, writing with black shadows and red energy. Raven stood by it, her arms raised towards it.

**0000**

"AZARATH, METRION, ZINTHOS!" Raven shouted, and a black beam of her soul power flew through the air and struck the writing chrysalis. It had no absolutely no effect.

Raven clenched her teeth tighter and fired again, "AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

Nothing.

"ZINTHOS!"

Still nothing.

"ZINTHOS! **ZINTHOS!** **_ZINTHOS!_**"

The cocoon spasmed, drinking in Raven's futilely spent energy, and with it her hope.

**0000**

Ragnarök couldn't say he hadn't tried to comply with Shayera's demand, but with no water to hold the wall together, his attempt at a barrier quickly deteriorated into a furious whirlwind of sand, an oscillating wall that the demons could penetrate but not with the same ease as they could empty air.

And so, all the soldiers got ready, waiting in a battle line as the next wave of fiends emerged from the sand cloud. They opened fire, each one who could. Cyborg's auto-cannon tore through the first wave, and Starfire vaporized others with star bolts. Booster Gold blasted all those he could.

Wonder Woman, Shayera, and Beast Boy (who was far too busy trying not to die to enjoy being with the two hottest Justice League babes like, ever) guarded John as he tried to recharge.

"This can't be right," Green Lantern said.

"What?"

"My lantern only has enough energy for half a ring recharge. It's been long enough for the central battery on Oa to have filled it back up by now..."

"Half will have to do then!" Diana said, even as John recited the oath.

"It must be Trigon's power—the energy field he's created around the planet, Beast Boy said. It's probably interfering with the transmissions of you big battery thingy."

John raised an eyebrow. "You watch too much science fiction, you know that. But it's as good an explanation as any."

"And it emphasizes the point that we must defeat Trigon," Wonder Woman said, even as the first demon missed by the long-range attackers arrived. The fire-demon flung its arms at Diana like whips, but she caught them by the wrist and jerked them towards her, then ended it's pitiful existence with a kick through the head.

Suddenly, a magenta energy beam lanced out and slammed into Ragnarök, blasting him backwards. And the dirt reacted almost instantaneously, spinning into a hurricane of abrasive silicate around the heroes. Holding the lines quickly turned into a game of survival, as the Titans and Leaguers were suddenly blind.

"Shoot at everything that isn't human!" Cyborg shouted, drawing the angry glares of two red-haired green-eyed femmes. "Oid!" he added quickly.

Suddenly, a green energy bubble grew forth from somewhere in the sandstorm, and sealed all the heroes but Ragnarök inside, John ran over and used his ring to turn off the malfunctioning armor, and then helped Collin to his feet. The sand instantly stopped moving and fell to the ground.

"Let me handle this," John said, using his ring to erect a massive barrier around the approaching demons. "I'll hold them as long as I can!" he shouted. "Go! Help Raven."

Diana modified the plan a bit. "Cyborg, Booster, you stay here and keep firing. Starfire, Beast Boy, come with me and Shayera."

"So much for doing nothing," Booster thought lamely aloud. And so the teams broke off. Collin stayed with Cyborg in case he needed the tools Victor kept in his chest cavity to fix his armor.

**0000**

Despite all their best efforts, it was too late. The merger was complete...

Red and black energy erupted from the cocoon, spilling into the red sky and tainting its color farther. Raven stared in horror as a new being emerged from the cocoon. His flesh was like cooling magma, his antlers sharp as a razor, shining like polished steel, and both were hard as diamond. He was smaller now, only a couple stories tall, and far more powerful. Even the non powered Titans could feel it.

His eyes had not changed. The four pinpoints of red light glared across the battlefield, staring death at all who opposed him. The sands around him had been fused into a sheet of pure glass, and it cracked as his weight pressed down; Trigon marched across it towards Starfire, Beast Boy, Wonder Woman, and Hawkgirl, murder in his eyes.

"You who dared oppose the might of The Terrible shall now be destroyed," he said. And then he attacked them.

**0000**

Raven watched in horror as her ascended father mercilessly assaulted her friends, and despite their best efforts, she knew that they couldn't hope to defeat him. She only hoped they survived long enough for Robin to get there—yes, she felt him coming. And with him he carried some hope and urgency, though she knew not for what.

And if what Robin carried was not enough... then they were all doomed.

**0000**

Green Lantern's ring flickered as a new demon slammed into it, and he knew his time was almost up.

"Cyborg," he shouted. "Get ready to run. I don't have much energy left."

"I—" Cyborg said, then grunted as a small demon slammed into him before Booster Gold blasted it away... "—noticed," he finished.

"But I'm not done fixing this thing yet!" Collin protested.

"In a moment, it won't matter," John said.

"Gentlemen, can I be of assistance," a smooth new voice came. It was one Cyborg recognized all to well.

Then, a flurry of Nth Metal shuriken tore through the nearest set of demons, and the Leagures and Titans looked to the side to see...

"Slade?" Cyborg said, shocked. It was a man, indeed wearing Slade's outfit. But instead of the orange and black mask, he wore on his head only small patch over his right eye. His hair and beard were white, and several weapons adorned his costume, one of which—a katana—was in his hand, resting on his shoulder.

"Oh dear, Mr. Stone," Slade mocked. "It seems I've forgot my face. I do hope you forget what you've seen here."

So shocked was Cyborg at the vitriol in Slade's voice, and more so that it seemed not be directed at him, that he didn't notice John next to him, half mouthing, half whispering a single word:

"Deathstroke..."

Slade glared at the Green Lantern. "John Stewart. Member of the Justice League. Green Lantern. Nice to meet you." Slade's voice was still sarcastic, but it had an edge, a warning. Something that made John hesitate.

"What do you want?" he finally asked.

"Nothing that you don't, at the moment. I want Trigon to suffer, and then I want him to die. I believe Raven is capable of doing this. But just in case, I was going to fight off these demons while you go help her out. Any objections?"

**0000**

The maelstrom of power around Trigon began to shatter the rock outcroppings and mesas in the desert outside Jump City, the battle ground for the fate of the world. And into this inferno did Robin fall, guided only by gravity and what strength his legs could still muster. Eventually, and amazingly he found the ground without becoming paste, though bruised and bloodied, and pressed on, the pain of his wounds only driving him harder towards his goal...

And in an instant, he was caught up by a dark angel.

"I'm here, Tim," Raven said.

"Raven." For the first time since the sun eclipsed, Robin started thinking like Tim again, and let himself smile. "I have something here for you..." He pointed to the box on his belt.

Raven removed it, and set it aside, and then turned to Robin. She let her healing energies cascade over him, taking in his weariness and expunging it.

"Thank you," Tim said. "In the box, there is something you need." Robin then repeated to Raven what Slade had told him, about Azar and the rings of power, and how that perhaps they were the key to defeating Trigon.

Raven smiled, opened the box, and placed the rings, one of the five on different fingers of both hands. "Don't believe what Slade told you of Azar," she said. "Azar was the kindest woman I knew."

Robin nodded. "I'd take your word over Slade's any day," he said with a smirk.

Then, reaching deep into herself, Raven began to meditate, focusing what was left of her energies, looking deep within and searching for the power in the rings. Then it washed over her, and a blinding flashed filled the area.

When it cleared, Raven had changed. Her hair was long now, her cloak and leotard solid white, and her skin had a faint glow... "Thank you, Tim," she said. And then, she vanished.

**0000**

Beast Boy fell from the sky as a dinosaur, slamming into Trigon's back and shoulders. But the rock-solid demon shrugged him off, and smashed a fist into his body. Gar sailed into a standing outcropping, and it crumbled. He was caught by Wonder Woman before being smashed, but then Diana herself was shot out of the sky. John blasted with what power he had left, and Booster Gold... sort of stood around waiting for the end...

All eight of the heroes gathered fell to Trigon's merciless assault, one by one collapsing, their strength reserves finally giving out... Some it took longer than others; Diana fiercely gave a final charge, smashing into Trigon's face with her mighty Amazon strength, and beat the demon back. But then, angry, Trigon snarled and slashed at her with his razor-sharp antlers. Diana defended, but opened herself up to a blast from Trigon's death glare, and she too fell.

Trigon inhaled, and conjured a fire to destroy all his enemies once and for all... The fire leapt from his mouth, spiraling down to burn the Leaguers and Titans to a crisp...

But it never got there. A white Raven sprang from the ground, shielding the heroes from the attack. And when it cleared, Raven hovered, glowing white in white raiment. "It ends now, father!" she said.

"What treachery is this!" Trigon bellowed. "Where did you get this power?"

And then, Raven's demeanor changed, and her voice was not her own. "Look closer, Trigon."

Trigon did, and he saw it instantly, the five glowing rings on his daughter's hands. "Azar!" he snarled. "The witch lives to spite me even in death."

"You underestimated me, Trigon, and you underestimated the people of this earth, these heroes. You expected no opposition, but you got it in spades. You expected only victory, but you have suffered defeat. And soon, that defeat will be absolute. Now, Raven, I relinquish the power of my people to you. Use it how I know you will. Avenge us."

Azar closed Raven's eyes, and when they opened again, Raven was herself, though fiercer than her dark father had ever seen her. "You call yourself my father," she said. "I deny this. I renounce you. You may have conceived me, but you were never my father! My family and friends raised me! The monks of Azarath cared for me in youth. You are nothing: a worthless side note in this chapter of human history. AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"

And with that cry, white power exploded from Raven's body, covering her and Trigon, and taking the form of a great raven. And it flew. It flew away through the atmosphere, through Trigon's taint around the earth, and high into the sky, and even beyond that, into the cold void of space. The massive ball of light around them protected Raven from the effects of the vacuum...

But Trigon only laughed. Because the white power was not hurting him in the least.

"Azar, you fool!"

Raven said nothing.

"You forget that I am not only Trigon. I am Parallax, as well, and I am hordes of demons, governed by the greatest mind among them. Your energies cannot penetrate my flesh, nor your power break me. I am infinite! I am OMNIPOTENT!"

Raven smiled. "There is another weapon I can use against you."

"Your friend Ozymandias and the sword he bears? He keeled over dead from the effort of smiting Xirtam!"

Raven didn't believe him.

"And the shard that tore your perfect form from you? You cannot bluff. You let go of that opportunity when you futilely drove it into the flesh of my forehead. You have nothing!"

Raven glared at him, making sure the full force of the contempt all of Azarath felt for him, the brunt of all his good his evil was powerless over, and Trigon flinched. "Who said that I let it go?"

Trigon's four eyes grew wide, as Raven stretched out her hand, and whispered. "Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

And the shard of the great sword Fang that Oz had given to Raven shattered farther, tiny metal pieces bursting to the surface, causing Trigon to react in shock and pain. Buried deep within him by Raven's earlier attack, the now-further broken shards of that broken blade slid along the inside of his body, just under his skin, guided by Raven's hand. Tiny lines appeared allover Trigon, his body lacerated from within by the magic-enhanced metal fragments.

The gashes they cut from within allowed the energies of the souls of Azarath to pour into Trigon, burning the devil, causing him greater pain than he had ever felt.

"NO! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! YOU COULDN'T HAVE HELD ON TO THAT SHARD FOR SO LONG!" Trigon bellowed. "I DON'T BELIEVE I!"

"Believe it!" Raven shot back. And with a final push, the energy exploding into Trigon, burning his innards, and Trigon shrieked in pain. Raven's massive wave of energy streaked off towards the sun, and Raven descended again to the earth, her aura vaporizing Trigon's clouds of dark energy wherever it touched.

The Titans gathered around Raven as she came down, as did the League.

"Raven!" Beast Boy blurted. "That was amazing!"

"Is he gone? For good?" Cyborg asked.

Raven smiled, sadness and happiness mixing in her heart, and in her face. Tears of joy flowed down. "It's over," she said.

Indeed, considering the metaphysical whyfors and wherewithals of forces and constants, such as the speed of light, that despite existing in our world, we barely understand, who is to say that forces that do not exist here, especially ones possessing the arcane nature of soul energy, should have to obey all the laws of nature?

At his moment, Trigon's burning shell fell into the sun and was consumed, a fitting end for a creature already destined for the lake of fire. And with it, the power to change the world radiated out, flaring through the sun's corona and making its way towards our planet, to make things right.

**0000**

Jump City was still desolate, and Raven wouldn't say another word, she just stood there, her back to the setting sun, as if expecting something.

"What gives, Raven?" Beast Boy asked. "Why isn't the world fixed yet?"

Raven said nothing, and the demands grew more pronounced.

"Raven, if there is something we should know, please tell us." Starfire said.

"Tell us now," Robin said. "That is an order."

Raven responded by holding up a single finger. The Justice League merely watched on in silent confusion.

"Raven," Cyborg said, "Robin just ordered you to—"

Raven's finger moved slightly forward, and she cut him off by saying, "Wait for it..."

The Titans looked beyond her to the setting sun, obscured by Trigon's energy field around the earth... And were all suddenly blinded when the solar body flared, bathing the desert in a white cleansing light. It washed over Jump City, and stone became flesh, twisted hunks of metal became buildings and cars and houses.

The lava in the bay became water once more, and Titans Tower stood, damaged but fixable. And the energy spread, covering the whole world until none of Trigon's taint remained.

**0000**

John was finally able to replenish his ring, but even it was having a hard time keeping him from falling to sleep after the whole ordeal. Nonetheless, the League—including the Question this time—and the Titans had spread out in search of the one who called himself Ozymandias.

Eventually, they found Oz lying a pile of rubble not far from the mesa where Xirtam had attacked him, beaten, bruised, and probably not far from dead. But by this time, Ragnarök had been able to retrieve his White Catalyst, so Oz was quickly back on his feet.

And the Justice League, certain things were in good hands with the Titans, continued on with their mission, whatever it had been.

Shortly, the Titans gathered atop Titans Tower, ready to decide the fate of Oz, to thank him, and whatever else Robin had in mind. The wind blew the tattered remnants of Oz's jacket, but otherwise, there was silence. Until Robin spoke.

"First of all, I'd like to thank you for your help. It was invaluable, and this battle may have gone vert differently without it."

Oz raised an eyebrow at him. "But...?"

"No 'but'. I simply ask you this: You still think we're not ready?"

Oz sighed deeply, and then looked up at the Titans, studying them all. "Tim, you know it's not always so black and white—"

"White and black," Collin corrected.

"Whatever," said Oz. "The point I've been trying to make time and time again is this: This is the gods' playground, Titans. A hero is not one who feels no fear, but one who faces the boogeymen and the phantasms, head on, charging into the flashing lights and sounds that make up war's song, braving the inferno. This is the one who will rise upon the wings of the eagles, soaring like the heroes of the silver age. Those who retreat to the sins of youth, the comforts and follies of childhood will never know the price and reward of heroism. So, Titans, will you take the epic road and face the gauntlet, or will you take the _via negativa_? Will you live up to your namesake, or are you the children of a lesser god?"

The Titans all gave him blank stares.

Finally, Raven spoke what they were all thinking: "What the _hell_ are you talking about?" The Titans goggled at her, but Oz just smirked.

"Promotion, my dear Titans. Promotion is everything."

**0000**

The next few days, Oz stayed at the tower, free to come and go, but always under surveillance. The Titans permitted him to gather his things, and for the most part, he kept to himself and did not disrupt the activities. There was one incident on the night of Halloween, the night Trigon was defeated:

_"Dude, it's movie night!" Beast Boy said. "I know we've been through a lot today, so I'm not sure how much gore we can take. I mostly just got the psychological thrillers. The Ring, The Others. I also got Texas Chainsaw Massacre, if that is okay with you all."_

_"Horror movies?" Cyborg asked._

_"It **is** Halloween," Beast Boy replied._

_"Yeah, but we've gone through enough horror today, don't you think."_

_Suddenly, Oz, who had been in the other room writing in his notebook, blazed into the room, grabbed the stack of DVDs from Beast Boy's hands, produced a white mallet from nowhere, and began smashing them to pieces._

_"Dude, what's you deal?" Beast Boy asked. "Those are due back on Wednesday."_

_Oz shot a glance at Cyborg. "Do you have Control Freak's remote here?"_

_Cyborg stared dumbly. "Um..."_

_"DO YOU?"  
"Yeah. It's in the evidence room..." Cyborg trailed off, because Oz was already gone._

_By the time Robin and Starfire found him, he had somehow broken into the evidence room and was grinding Control Freak's remote to pieces with the mallet from earlier._

_"What are you doing!" Robin blurted, grabbing him by the shoulders._

_"Trust me," he said. "If you knew how much trouble this thing could cause, you'd thank me!"_

Oz also had a rather peculiar reaction to the news that Susan Dearbon Dinby had been elected as the 44th president of the United States, and the first female president, beating out both Hilary Clinton and the republican candidate. Unfortunately, his reaction cannot be reprinted in a T-Rated fic without editing, so every offending instance has been replaced with the word 'fish'...

_Oz looked up at the muted TV and back down at his notebooks, and continued righting. He had an obsession with knowledge and information that Raven worried was unhealthy, but she didn't say anything. She just hoped that Collin and Cyborg would hurry up and figure out how to send him back home so that he could be out of their lives and hair. Hopefully FOREVER._

_Raven glanced at the television, and realized that there was a news alert. She turned the volume up, and noticed that Oz put his notebook down and stood up to watch it... _

_Usher Jones appeared on the air, and then announced, "Folks, this just in. We have a winner from Tuesday's presidential election. Congratulations to Ralph Dinby for being the first 'first man'. That's right. Sue Dinby wins the election. She is the forty-fourth president of the US of A."_

_Oz blinked twice, dropped his notebook, and said, "What the fish?"_

_"Huh?" Raven said._

_"What the mother-fishing fish?" Oz blurted._

"_What is going on, Oz?" Raven demanded to know. He looked at her a little funny._

_"Er... nothing I guess. It's just in my world, she was murdered. And never president."_

_"Murdered?" Robin asked, as he came into the room, having apparently overheard the conversation._

_"Yes. She was killed by someone close, and I won't go into the details. It resulted in a nasty chain of events that almost destroyed the Justice League. And it got your father killed," Oz said sadly._

_"My father is dead anyway," Robin said pointedly._

_Oz's eyes widened. "I'm sorry to hear that, Tim. Captain Boomerang?"_

_Tim nodded._

_"Fish him," Oz said, placing an hand on Tim's shoulder._

**0000**

Finally, the day came when Oz was to, at last, go home. But before he left, he took the Fang, and asked Collin to come with him privately to the roof of the tower. He had had a nagging sensation ever since Trigon was defeated that he knew what he had to do.

"I want you to take me somewhere," he said to Rag. "A place that doesn't exist in my world."

"Huh? Where?"

"Take me to the place where Terra gave her life to stop the volcano. I'd like to see it—it's the last thing I need to do before I can leave. Robin said after Delirium reshaped the earth, the Catalyst is the only readily-available way in or out."

After a beat, Oz said, "Also, I have something for you..."

"For me?"

"Yes, for you. Are you deaf and stupid?"

Collin's eyes flashed surprise and anger behind his visor, but Oz could not see it, he knew. "Whatever. I'll take you."

Collin allowed the Dark Catalyst energy to flare over him and Oz, and in a minute, they were in Terra's cave. Ragnarök used the Catalyst to bamf in a torch, and handed it to Oz, as the older youth made his way through the tunnels under Jump City.

**0000**

When they finally got to the place where Terra's monument had been, Oz found the broken memorial plaque. He put the three sections of it together in the middle of the pedestal, then wrote one final entry in his notebook, and placed it in the backpack with all the others, as well as the trinkets he had collected.

"So what did you want to give me?" Collin asked.

Oz didn't look at him. "I've debate long and hard on this. When I first picked up this world's version of the sword, it told me I had to pick a new bearer for it, one for this planet earth. I think I've known from the beginning who I would give it to. I just never understood why. I'm still not sure that I do."

"You can't be serious," Collin said. "I don't even know how to use a—"

"I just hope... that she will understand what I'm entrusting her with, and that she will use it wisely when the time comes. Until then, it will be safe here." And then, Oz stabbed the Fang down into the rock, between the shards of Terra's plaque, and it glowed with energy. "The sword understands who I've chosen," he said.

Oz turned to find Collin in a prolonged state of facevault. "Did I say something wrong?"

"I thought—you were—never mind. Didn't you say you had something to give me?"

"Oh, yeah," Oz said. "I almost forgot. Sorry." He reached into his pocket, and removed a small square box with a single button on it. "This is a _Personal Deus Ex Machina_. You have heart, but your skills are lacking, and I figure that one day you or one of this world's Titans is going to screw up. Very badly. This will get you out of it, but DON'T use it unless it is the ONLY option."

Oz had never heardall the ways _glomp _could beused as a swear word before, but he got an earful of it after saying that.

"Oh. If you feel that way I could go with my original plan and use the PDEM to get back home and you'll have nothing."

Rag blinked. "Sorry. I guess this _is _you way of being kind." He reached out and took the device.

"Okay, now lets get back. And will you please hold this torch? I carried it all the way down here. I don't even know why you used a torch when you could have bamfed in a flashlight."

Ozymandias passed the torch to Collin. Then he re-read the last sentence and said, "Oh. Now I know why."

That night, Cyborg and Collin sent Oz back to his own universe, and at the tower, there was much rejoicing.

And deep within the caves under the city, a sword glimmered in the darkness. Eventually, its day would come. One day, it would save the world...

From whom, and when, only time would tell.

* * *

Author's Note: **(collapses**) WHOA. That was so long, at least for me. And it's finally over! Trigon is finished. I have some more ideas for _Colors_ arcs, and this story is FAR from over, but for now it's on hiatus, at least until I update all my other stories. Even the poor neglected "Villains"... 

So, _adios,_ until then!

Ozymandias, if you still don't know, is indeed Noel "Savior" Collins from Legend Maker's Teen Titans fan fictions. And yes, he is a jerk in those too. I did not make that part up.

Oz's soliloquy about flashing lights and sounds is actually an inside joke—each odd thing he says is the title of a Titan Legends story.

Special thanks to Marv Wolfman and George Perez, for creating Raven and Trigon, and the other awesome New Teen Titans characters, without whom the show and this fanfic wouldn't have been possible.

And to Prisionero: It wasn't Ragnarök! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You were WRONG, man, WRONG!


	15. Vacation: All I Ever Wanted?

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Fifteen**

Tara sat back on her bed and exhaled deeply. Beast Boy had said he had some big news about Slade, but what he had told her was still jarring. To think, all that time she had been the apprentice to Deathstroke the Terminator, one of the fiercest assassins in the world...

"How did you find out?" she asked him in a low voice.

Beast Boy shrugged at first, avoiding the question. "Hey, what's with your clock?" he asked, pointing at the alarm clock by her bed. "I thought they used super scientific clocks here that could never be wrong. But its 20 minutes slow."

Tara eyed the clock strangely. Beast Boy was indeed correct—the clock _was_ wrong. But he had still ignored her direct question. "I guess I just set it wrong," she told him. "Garfield, tell me how you found out."

"What does it matter? Beast Boy asked.

"I just want to know," she said. "It seems strange that you would figure this out 11 months after I killed him..."

Gar's eyes shot wide when she said that, and then a strange expression of guilt flashed across his face before transforming into a sheepish smile. "We just finally did our research," he said.

"There's more to it than that," Tara insisted. "You're so predictable, Gar. You can't hide anything from me." She leaned forward and stood up to hug him. "Something happened, didn't it? Something _really _big."

Gar looked down with a sigh. "Yeah, it did. Slade... he came back."

Now it was Tara's turn to show shock. "What! How?"

"Raven's father," Gar said. "It turns out he was a really bad dude, a demon from another dimension—like the devil on steroids. He brought Slade back and used him to get to Raven, promising back the flesh you burned off in return for help with the end of the world."

"But… he's dead again, right? They _are _dead." Tara said, her eyes moistening. "Slade is gone!"

"Robin wouldn't go into the details, but somehow the deal was broken off…. But. Slade got his flesh back anyway, and he's still out there somewhere… Cyborg saw his face..."

**

* * *

**

_Five nights prior in the Ops room, Robin had been working very late, when Cyborg and his confidant Beast Boy entered the room..._

"_Robin," Cy said, "I have something to tell you."_

_"I can't right now. Slade got away after the fight with Trigon, and I have to make sure he doesn't—"_

_"Robin," Vic insisted, "this is ABOUT Slade. When he came back to help us fight Trigon—I saw his face. I got an image of what he looked like locked inside my internal memory."_

_"YOU WHAT?" Robin said, turning around and blurting. "Why didn't you tell me this five days ago?"_

"_Dude, _**there's**_ your answer," Beast Boy said. "He knew you'd flip out, and he wanted you to be able to relax and celebrate Trigon's defeat with the rest of us."_

_Robin glared at Beast Boy, but shrugged. "Fair enough. So..."_

_"I'm getting on it," Cy said, walking over to the computer and using his index finger USB port to interface with it. And image popped up on screen of a man beyond middle age, with silver-white hair. Over his right eye there was an eye patch, and his outfit was clearly Slade's, the desolate background of Earth reformed by Trigon framing his features._

_Robin stared at the picture with a strange look on his face. "This looks familiar," he said. "It's almost as if my previous employer briefed me on this guy before but I can't place a name..."_

_Suddenly, as if Robin's words had been prophetic, a small blip in the bottom right of the computer appeared and enlarged into an image of the Bat Signal... _

_"Speak of the devil," Cyborg said._

_Robin pressed a button, and there appeared a familiar image of a man in a black cowl, his eyes white slits, pointed bat-ears rising above his head. The Batman..._

"_Batman." Robin said. Cyborg realized what was going on, and allowed the two a moment of silence. For, you see, a couple years back, Robin had been kidnapped. For three weeks he had been tortured and brainwashed by the Joker and Harley Quinn, and when Batman and Batgirl finally found him, he had been cloned into a miniature little duplicate of the psychotic madman._

_It took a year, but Tim finally had is sanity restored. Unfortunately, Batman forbad him to be Robin ever again, preferring increasingly to work alone, even shunning Batgirl and Nightwing. So Robin had set out alone, against Batman's wishes, to Jump City, where one fateful day, a Tamaranian girl had fallen from the stars and began tearing up the town—the very day the Titans had all first met._

_Batman and Robin, though like father and son, had been estranged for all the time since then._

_"It's been a while, Tim," Batman said, apparently not seeing or choosing to ignore Cyborg and Beast Boy. And it surprised Cyborg, shocked him to his cybernetic core, to see that Batman's features were almost.. soft... Batman, the Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, the "G.D. Batman"... _

_He was actually emotional!_

"_Yeah," Tim said weekly... "I—"_

_"I'm not calling because I want you to come back to Gotham. And I'm not sure I'm ready to apologize. It's obvious now that your city needs you more than I do. I only called to warn you."_

_"About what?"_

_Batman's image reached as if to press a button on whatever console he was using. And an image of Slade came up, single eye glaring from behind the mask. "Green Lantern told me he saw the face of the one you called Slade."_

_"Cyborg just told me the same," Robin said, motioning to the million dollar teen behind him. "What do you know?"_

_"Deathstroke," Batman said simply._

_Even Beast Boy goggled at that one. "Deathstroke? You mean as in DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR?"_

_Robin just stared at the screen. "You do..."_

_"His real name is Slade Wilson," Batman said. "He used to be in the military. Experiments were performed on him to enhance his body and mind, and he became a super soldier of sorts until a Vietcong hacked out his eye with a machete. He returned home to his wife and two children, and fathered another one. Then he began taking contracts under the name of Deathstroke, or The Terminator, and the two eventually became synonymous, the latter used less and less frequently after 1984 for obvious reasons."_

_"Robin," Cyborg said. "I read something about this guy a long time ago. If this information is correct—"_

_Batman interrupted. "Mr. Stone is right. Tim, I can't stress this enough, unless you have all the Titans with you, STAY AWAY from Slade. You don't know how dangerous a man you're dealing with."_

_"I fought him before," Robin insisted. "We seemed almost evenly matched—"_

"_Duh," Beast Boy blurted. "Because he wanted you as his apprentice! You admitted yourself you would have fallen off that building without a Bat-Grapple if he hadn't rescued you."_

_"So it was you that robbed the Wayne building and trashed the sign," Batman said with a hint of mild, joking annoyance in his voice, as if there was some significance to Robin trashing a Wayne sign other than Wayne being native to Batman's home town. Cyborg just shrugged._

"_Tell Mr. Wayne I'm sorry," Robin said through gritted teeth, causing Beast Boy and Cy to both goggle. "The next time you see him, I mean. I was acting under extreme coercion at the time."_

_Batman nodded. "Ivy and Baby Doll are terrorizing the new mall," he said. "I have to go."_

_"Tell Alfred that—" Robin started to say, then cut himself off as the monitor went dead._

_"Chatty guy," Cyborg commented._

_"Dude, was that like the first time you talked to him since you came here?" Beast Boy asked._

_"Let's not talk about that," Robin said finally._

**

* * *

**

Tara's eyes widened a bit more. "Wow, so you like actually were there, when Batman called Robin. That's awesome. I… I just can't believe Slade was really the guy you said he was. He seemed so much more intelligent and cultured than what you'd think an assassin would be…"

"You're defending him?" Beast Boy asked amazed.

"No!" Tara blurted. "Never. He was a cruel manipulative evil…" Tara trailed off, knowing that one could use the same descriptors on herself. A pang of guilt became visible on her face. "He took me in, you know. I hate him for what he turned me into, and for turning on me…"

"Don't try and think about it," Beast Boy said, sitting on the bed beside her and placing his comforting hands on her shoulders… Mixed emotions were pouring through him at the moment. He really cared for her and didn't want to see her reliving her past life. But at the same time, he was afraid. Afraid that what she had been could come back, or that it would drive her mad. And most of all, afraid that he would unfairly hold her past against her.

This, the girl who was 30 pounds heavier and many times more muscular than when he first knew her, essentially a completely different person.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"I…" Beast Boy started, even as a more recent memory began to flood his mind… "Nothing."

* * *

"_Alright. Yeah, Tara. I know. I'll see you on Monday. Bye." Beast Boy had hung up the phone after that conversation the previous week in a really good mood, which ended as he was suddenly scared out of his mind._

_"You're very forgiving."_

_The voice gave him such a start that Beast Boy screamed out and jumped off his bed, nearly face-planting on the floor. _Good thing I was on the top bunk,_ he thought,_ or I would have knocked myself unconscious sitting up

_"Ouch," he said getting up. He cradled the shoulder he landed on in an exaggeration of the pain. "Geez, Oz, don't you ever knock."_

_"Would you have let me in?" Oz asked._

_"Um… Good point," Gar said, sweatdropping. "What do you want with me? I thought Rag and Cyborg were sending you home."_

_"They're working on it," he said. "I just wanted to ask you about Terra. What exactly happened."_

_"I don't like to talk about her past," Gar said dismissively. _

"_Not talking about it doesn't change what happened. Tara joined Slade, betrayed the team, tried to kill all of you, and only turned on him when he turned on her. What I want to know is _why_."_

_Beast Boy sighed and looked away. "Fine. We first met her about two years ago. She was out in the dessert and killed this giant scorpion thing that we were about to rescue her from—she had set a trap for it. So that night we let her sleep at the Tower, and considered her for membership."_

_"No background checks or anything?" Oz said with an arched eyebrow. "What were you guys think—"_

_"Robin said he'd done some searches and found nothing. But you're jumping ahead. She couldn't control her powers at the time. It almost got me and her both killed. But she made me promise not to tell anyone about it."_

_Oz frowned. "And then what?"_

_"Well, Robin figured it out, and mentioned it to her, and Terra flipped. She ran off, and came back a few months later in perfect control of her powers."_

_"So she comes back and you just let her in? The fact she could suddenly control her powers didn't raise any suspicions?"_

_This angered Beast Boy. "Would you lay off her already? She told us that she had trained, that she had got tired of accidents and practiced till she got it right."_

_"Are you certain Slade didn't pump her full of the serum that gave him his powers or anything like that?"  
_

"_I don't think she was ever influenced by any serum, and I never knew Slade had any powers."_

_Oz smacked his forehead. "And Raven didn't ever once sense that she was lying?"  
_

"_Raven said her mind was hard to read. Robin later said maybe Slade had done something to her brain to help prevent it, or maybe Terra was just a really good liar. Whatever happened, she betrayed us after living with us for months, making us think she was our friend…"_

_Beast Boy trailed off as if his words in and of themselves were damning to his current relationship with her…_

**

* * *

**

And those same fears reverberated in his mind now as well, at STAR. But she seemed like she really wanted nothing more than to forget all that had happened, like she'd just turn her memories off and become a new person if she could.

"Well," Gar said, "I think Ragnarök had some announcement he wanted to make, so I have to go now. See you later, Tara…

**

* * *

**

Tara watched as Beast Boy left, excusing himself as Mercy Thomas, a technician at the lab, entered in his stead, Gar nearly bumping into her.

"Hey, Merc," Tara greeted with a fake smile… She really didn't feel like smiling. Mercy was really kind to her, but she also was a bit overprotective and suspicious, and if she thought something was wrong, she'd try and find out what.

"Tara," Mercy said with a smile. "How are you doing today?"

"Well, could be worse," Tara said, trying to sound chipper. And failing.

"You could be a lot better," Mercy said. "Tell me what's wrong. You've been upset about something for the past three days. It started that night you spent beating up the drones."

"Sorry." Tara sighed deeply. "I'm not really sure—I'm just wore out, and I keep having dreams. I don't really remember them, but they always put me in a bad mood when I wake up."

Mercy looked the girl over intently. "Your nightmares are affecting more than just your mood. I've seen you on the security cameras—tossing and turning in your sleep, shouting like you're being attacked or attacking someone."

Tara looked away sharply, the guilt of her betrayal rising again. Not only that, but a bunch of other emotions she didn't quite understand. "I tried to kill them, Mercy!" she said. "They took me in—gave me a home—and I tried to kill them all!"

"You were manipulated, Tara. You can't keep putting yourself through these guilt trips. What's done is done, and you've redeemed yourself in their eyes…"

"Not in mine!" Tara shouted, but then immediately regretted it, not because of the words but because she'd snapped at Mercy, who was only trying to help. She had to be pushing thirty—why did she care so much? Tara was just a stupid kid who'd almost got the town blown up by lava. Why did she have to pry?

Mercy just shook her head, but quickly changed the subject. "Look at this," she said walking over to a lamp in the corner. It had been bolted to the floor, as all STAR Labs private quarters furniture was, though Tara never had gotten a straight answer on why. "You've gone and bent your lamp post? How did you accomplish _that?_"

Tara shrugged. "I don't know, I never really noticed." The lamp was indeed slightly bent towards the direction of Tara's bed. "Maybe I kicked it in the middle of the night. Look, I know you're trying to change the subject for my sake. But I think as much as I don't want to, I _need_ to talk about it."

Mercy finished gathering the readouts from all of the instruments in Tara's room, some of which could not be monitored by computer. She frowned at several of the results, but didn't' comment on them. As she started to leave, she said, "Maybe we can talk later. I have thirteen more rooms and you should probably be getting to work. They don't pay you to beat up their drones, you know."

The door hissed open, and Mercy stepped out, then paused. She turned around and had a bit of a quandaried expression on her face. "There is something that maybe can help you to get a good night's sleep," she said measuredly. "We've been testing a new chemical, a drug that is supposed to relieve stress, even feelings of guilt. So far we've only tried it on animals, but we are ready to move up to human testing. There are no known side-effects, so perhaps…"

Tara sighed, but looked up, knowing that SOMETHING had to change or she'd burn herself out. "Thanks Merc. Anything you can do, I'd appreciate…"

"You're always welcome, Tara," Mercy said as she left…

**

* * *

**

Somewhere on the other side of the fourth wall, Terra-haters rejoiced that her segment is over.

**

* * *

**

Several hours later, Cyborg glanced at Ragnarök as the latter finally finished off The Dark One, the final boss of the _Mangler Brothers_ game, with a shout of victory and put the controller down as the credits started to roll.

"That was rather satisfying," he said.

"I bet," Cyborg replied absently as he went back to reloading the auto-cannon in his right arm.

"So… you want hear some good news?"

"Not if it has anything to do with Geico," Cyborg said still paying Rag little mind.

"Actually…" Ragnarok trailed off, then raised his voice so that the other Titans in ops, Beast Boy and Robin, could hear him. "I sort of called into this radio station the other day, and it turns out I've won us all some tickets… to Miami… plus pre-paid rooms at some apparently famous hotel…"

Cyborg no longer ignored him. "Miami? In November?"

Rag shrugged. "Hey, it was the station's idea, not mine. I just won the tickets, and I thought maybe we could go down there to celebrate blasting Trigon to pieces and all…"

"Doesn't it seem just a little convenient that you happened to win six tickets."

Ragnarok flinched at this. "Well, actually, I only won four… and only two rooms… But I figured that we could just take the T-Ship anyway. You all know we've been stressed out and all. Ever since Trigon there's not been a whole heck of a lot to do. All the super villains seem to be taking some time off or something. Why can't we too?…"

"Dude, you really think we can afford to leave the city undefended?" Beast Boy said. "What if Slade shows back up, or what if the Five attack? The cops can't handle them alone."

Robin got up from his work and joined in. "For once, Beast Boy is right. We can't just run off and leave the city defenseless."

"How bout this," Cyborg said. "I really don't feel like going to Miami. Things are slow up in Dakota too… I was going to call Gear down from the Titans North and we were going to work on some things. I swear the guy's smarter than me. And sand will just clog up my gears anyway. So no harm done."

"You sure about this, Vic?" Robin said, scratching his head. "I hate to leave you out."

"Trust me, I WANT to be here. What me and Gear are working on is a bit of a secret, but you know it's gonna be good if I need his help."

When Cyborg was confident Robin believed him, he looked away and finished up his maintenance of the auto-cannon. Sure, what he and Gear were planning was more than cliché, but…

Nah, best not think about it, otherwise he might just blurt it out…

**

* * *

**

All the mourners but three had left. Mr. and Mrs. Washington stood as the rain battered their umbrella, staring at the headstone in front of them. Raven looked too, though she was too busy looking inside herself to really see the inscription she had already read a billion times over:

_TREVOR JAMES WASHINGTON  
1990-2008_

_Beloved Son_

After a while, even his parents left, but Raven stayed there. She didn't really have anywhere else to be. And she was the one who had caused the death, even if it was inadvertently and in a round-about manner.. Plus, she wanted some time alone…

"Trevor," she whispered. "Whether or not you can hear me, I hope you know… I'm sorry."

A tear struggled to fall from her eye and she forced it back in, afraid her emotions would cause the memorials to start exploding. She had to stay emotionally dead—even without Trigon, her powers still posed a danger when mixed with her feelings…

The air above and behind her rippled a bit, and Raven caught a scent of jasmine on the air before she felt the kind mental presence behind her and long before a comforting orange hand came to rest on her shoulder.

Raven looked back to see Starfire, offering a weak smile of encouragement, with sadness evident in her eyes. "A penny for your thoughts, I believe is the correct expression."

"Not much to say…" Raven looked forward again at the stone. "It's bad enough that he's gone, but I can't help blame myself… If I hadn't let him get close to me, if he hadn't gotten involved, he'd still be alive."

"Do not say that. Slade did what he did for selfish reasons. He had no need to kill Trevor to reach his ends. It wasn't your fault."

"Logic won't help me with this, Kori," Raven said hovering up. "I…"

"He was very important to you, yes?" Kori raised her altitude in synchronization with Raven.

Raven closed her eyes for a moment, letting the sadness fall back down into the pit where it belonged—she had to be strong…

Then she turned and looked at Starfire. "What does Robin mean to you?" she asked pointedly, before vanishing into a dark shadow. The last thing she saw was the look of shock on Starfire's face at what she had said…

**

* * *

**

As hectic as vacation planning can be, this one went surprisingly smooth. Which, for the Titans, didn't mean much.

Nevertheless, the teens were on their plane within forty-eight hours, and on their way to Miami, and in accommodations that were, needless to say, far superior to those of the cramped T-Ship, even if the latter was faster. Robin had managed to procure a ticket by other means, purportedly by pulling a few strings through the Bat grape vine.

"I called Nightwing, he called Huntress, she called Batgirl, and she called Batman. And hopefully the cover story I relayed didn't get distorted along the way," Robin had explained. Despite the fact that Batman had just called him up last week, Tim still had no way of contacting him, other than civilian phone calls…

Setting down in Miami went smoothly enough, and the Titans managed to obtain a rental car through Bat intervention.

And there was music. Lots of music. "Back off, I'll take you on!" Ragnarok sang. It was on key, but his voice wasn't particularly suited to singing.

"Headstrong to take on anyone!" Beast Boy sang back. Raven began to veinthrob.

"Would you two knock it off?"

"Fine," Beast Boy said, leaning over the back seat of the rented SUV into the storage area. "Let's see, what CDs do we have. _Dark Side of the Moon, Lynyrd Skynyrd Essentials, Metallica's Greatest Hits…_ Huh? What's this?" Beast Boy picked up a bright lime green and purple CD with big yellow letters. "_Worship Tunes: 30 of the Greatest Praise and Worship Songs for Kids?_ How did this get in here?_"_ Beast Boy asked surprised.

In an instant, Rag had joined him, snatching the CD from Beast Boy's hands. His face flushed red and he sweatdropped. "Heh heh. Wow; this is old. I guess I accidentally bamfed it over in that box of stuff from my room in my home universe…" He gave another nervous chuckle and tossed the CD into the back seat of the car.

You're giving me a headache, and besides… Legend Maker already did this joke."

The fourth wall crumbled as the Titans drove by it.

"Sorry," Rag and Beast Boy said in unison.

Shortly thereafter, the Titans arrived at their hotel, the Deauville Beach Resort, and checked in. By the time the luggage was in the room, the guys were starving. Raven had eaten a whole box of Cheez-Itz on the way into the city… Mostly due to stress, she said.

Raven and Starfire left, saying they were going swimming, though how their hologram rings would hold up in the water, Robin left it up to them to figure out. Anyway, the guys went out to find some food.

"So, what will it be?" Robin said from behind the wheel.

"Hm… I don't know. Chinese."

"We've had Chinese too much lately," Beast Boy said. "Maybe they have a good health bar around here where I can get a Tofu burger."

"Beast Boy," Robin said, "we don't all like Tofu."

"But I don't eat meat."

"You ate it that one time—" Robin started.

"I was under the influence of those chemicals, remember? That still grosses me out to this day."

"Fine, but I've still not _seen_ a Tofu bar," Tim said, still scanning the streets ahead. "What about Burger K—"

His words were suddenly cut off when something hit the car hard, rolling it across the road. Thankfully they were at an intersection and the rolled onto a road devoid of other vehicles.

The rolling SUV skidded to a halt, and Tim snapped into leader mode, getting his seat belt unfastened and getting the door open. "Everyone okay?" he shouted to the back seat.

"We're fine," Rag said. "Guys, I think that thing that hit us was a Bullet Bill."

"A what?"

"A Bullet Bill. From the Super Mario games!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Beast Boy said, turning into a fly and flying out of the car. Outside he turned into a gorilla and helped Rag out of the totaled vehicle by tearing off one of the doors.

Robin tapped his belt and his civilian clothes were replaced by his Robin uniform in a flash, a little technology picked up from Dr. Chang's most recent romp through Jump City.

Robin scanned the area, and the only people he saw were running or standing and watching, clearly frightened…

Then he looked in the direction the impact came from, and…

Well, sure enough, it was a Bullet Bill launcher, taken straight from Super Mario! "What is going on here?" he asked as he and the other two approached…

Suddenly, in pulse of blue energy, the launcher melted away and assumed a human form… a Human who was wearing a bright red helmet with a big "G" on it…

"I don't know who you n00bs are, but you've moved in on my turf. Prepare to be pwned by… THE GAMER!"

* * *

The Gamer was created by my brother, as were many of the characters who will be appearing in this arc. 


	16. Vacation: Odd Balls and Oddities

**Author's Note: **_The Odd Squad, The Object and Overkill were all created by my brother and used with permision. They don't exist in any published canon work._

_There are quite a few inside jokes in this chapter involving myself and the Titan Legends team. If you feel confused, then join the club! The names given are not the real names of any of hte parties involved. In fact, a good chunk of this chapter is one big fan service/in-joke. Mostly because I needed levity for next chapter, which will be qutie dark._

_ And lastly, sorry it took so long to update. I've been really busy._

* * *

**Teen Titans in COLORS**

**Chapter Sixteen – Vacation: Oddballs and Oddities**

The Titans, out of their disguises, approached this new villain who called himself "The Gamer" cautiously, even as his big grin began to fade.

"What?" he said, a confused look on his face, albeit the same harsh arrogance in his voice. "Didn't you n00bs hear what I said? Get outta town or I'm gonna set up _you_ the bomb!"

Robin shook his head in disgust. "_What_ are you talking about?"

"Dude, this guy is like some sort of game themed villain?" Beast Boy asked. "How lame is that?"

"I'll show you lame!" The Gamer blurted from across the street. "Get ready for a boss fight! But this time you have, no extra lives, no continues, and no cheat codes! I hope you've all _saved your game_, cause you are on your way to destruction."

As he ran towards the Titans, the light blue energy surrounded him again, but this time, when it dissipated, he was different—very different. Now he wore some sort of high-tech space armor vaguely reminiscent of a certain SPARTAN from Halo… Except this super-soldier was wearing what appeared to be a bloody white apron.

"Holy glomp!" Collin blurted. "He's become the _MASTER CHEF_!"

"The _what!" _asked Robin, drawing a birdarang and preparing to throw it. The Gamer arrived, and the Titans were forced to react, Ragnarok and Robin jumping out of the way while Beast Boy turned into a rhinoceros and slammed into the new form head on, blasting him back towards the bank he had exited before attacking them. From the sounds of sirens in the distance, he had probably just robbed the place.

"Who or what is Master Chef?" Robin asked again as the three Titans regrouped. "And how do you know about him."

"Master Chef is the level five boss from the Mangler Brothers game," answered Beast Boy. "He is the greatest bounty-hunter-slash-five-star-restaurant cook in the galaxy! He'll kill you… then make a mean sirloin from your remains."

"And it took me, Cyborg, and Gar all playing together to defeat him!" Collin added. "Which means we may be glomped in this fight unless—"

"Nobody is glomping anyone today," Robin said. About this time, the Gamer recovered and charged the trio of Titans again. "Titans, GO!"

Robin charged forward, removing a second birdarang from his belt and hurling them both at the Gamer, one right after the other. But the attacking cook/killer rolled out of the way of the first, and his cleaver flashed out and batted the second one out of the sky. Beast Boy hit second, using the tail of his newly assumed Ankylosaurus form as a flail, to hit the Gamer in the head.

But the Master Chef was faster than Gar had expected, jumping onto the tail and running up on Beast Boy's back. "You think the Intelligence running this thing is Artificial?" the Chef's low Cajun voice intoned from behind the mask, and Beast Boy's eyes widened as he flipped the cleavers around… "'You have no chance to survive make your time!'"

About the same time, Ragnarök shouted, "Watch out! His cleavers double as—OOF!" Ragnarök was suddenly basted backwards as his sentence came true, and the plasma Uzis that Chef's cleavers doubled as blasted orange beams that slammed into Rag's armor, knocking him down.

"Frag!" Chef cheered gleefully, then turned back to Beast Boy to blast him—only to find the open jaws of a massive anaconda where the Ankylosaurus' head had just been. He let out a stream of insults that was incomprehensible between the nerd jargon and Cajun accent, but Beast Boy quickly overpowered him, hoping his new snake body to suffocate the Gamer until he passed out. The snake wrapped each wrist separately, forcing the Cajun killer to drop both cleaver-guns…

Ragnarok jumped up, two molten melt-holes on the surface of his green armor. "Good thing he didn't hit the artifact," Rag said, summoning some dirt beneath a street tree into the form of a crow bar.

Robin started towards Gar and the Gamer as well, his bo-staff drawn, but motioned for Rag to be cautious; Beast Boy was struggling to contain the gamer within, despite his unarmed status.

"You need any help, Beast Boy?" Rag asked.

"Under control!" Gar shot back, though it clearly wasn't.

Robin picked up one of the guns and looked it over. "A butcher's cleaver and an Uzi that shoots laser beams in one weapon?" he said with a derisive incredulity. "The developers couldn't be serious…"

"Weirdness is part of the appeal of MB," began to explain. Before he could continue or give examples, the gun in Robin's hand burst into the blue energy from before, and hovered back towards Beast Boy…

Suddenly the snake's constriction was forced outward and Beast Boy retuned to normal cradling his aching sides, even as The Gamer flew from his former prison, now possessing wings and looking rather like Cupid…

"What is he now?" Robin asked.

"Heck if I know!" Ragnarok shouted. "I only play what Beast Boy purchases."

Gamer drew his new bow and fired a series of angelic arrows at his foes, who dodged and retreated. Ragnarok couldn't find enough rocks to make a shield, so he dived behind a parked car. Robin took the cues he'd learned from practicing with Speedy to not get skewered, and Beast Boy turned into a bumblebee, making himself too small a target.

"You guys truly are n00bs if you don't recognize the great Pit from _Kid Icarus!"_

"Or maybe we just don't obsess over twenty-two year old games (and don't ask me how I know the exact age or it will ruin my point)!" Ragnarok shot back, garnering another volley of arrows direct towards his car. One came right through the window, cutting of a lock of his hair before exploding into a pixilated burst of energy. Rag's eye widened, then narrowed.

Robin took the opportunity to hurl some more birdarangs at the toga-clad angel boy, but Pit flew above their trajectory.

Suddenly a green pterodactyl swooped down, tearing at the Gamer's angelic support (that is, his wings. Get your mind off Victoria's Secret right now they promote an unhealthy image of female beauty or whatever excuse their detractors are using these days!)

The flying lizard struggled in the air with Pit until the latter broke away by shooting an arrow into the skin flaps of Beast Boy's wings, and Gar shrieked as he glided towards the ground and reverted to human form cradling his arm. The energy pulsated around the Gamer once again…

And all hell this time in a proverbial manner broke loose.

"What is THAT thing?" Robin demanded as Beast Boy and Ragnarok gathered around him. The beast before them was clearly undead, a huge grotesque thing. Its chest cavity was open, and its rib cage was dripping blood from where it's heart should have been. It had no arms, but two huge legs, and a mouth that looked like a demon-possessed sock puppet…

"Um…"

"No idea."

Suddenly, a voice unfamiliar to everyone but Ragnarok accompanied new arrivals behind them. "It's called Gergoth, from _Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow_," the voice said.

**

* * *

**

Starfire noticed Robin's anxiety ease resolutely, and in turn became all the curious to know the cause of it.

"What troubles you, Raven?"

The dark teen shook her head gently. "Nothing anymore. The boys were involved in a battle and I thought we might have to intervene. But some form of reinforcements just arrived."

"You sensed all this—OOH!—through you mind, even while—AHH—we were in the cusp of such—OOOHAAAHH—immaculate pleasure."

Raven instructed her masseuse to continue working on her shoulders, then answered with a light nod.

"You both frighten and amaze me," the Tamaranian girl said. "Shall we not go help our friends?"

Raven looked across the room at their communicators lying next to their belongings. "They'll call if they need us," she said.

"But what of the "sin of Pride" that males tend to excel in wherein they refuse help they really need on the grounds it makes them feel inferior?"

"They have help now, like I said," Raven answered. "If they need OUR help, they will—OOOOHyeahthatfeelsgood—they will call us…"

"…………" Began Starfire… "I see."

**

* * *

**

The new arrivals were not at all, in any way/shape/form, one iota what Robin was hoping for or expecting.

The first of these was a young man not much older than Ragnarok, who had been the one to identify the beast before them all as Gergoth. He wore a light green body suit with dark green arm and leg-guards, and his face was covered by a dark green mask. Unruly blond hair covered his head, and he fired a transparent green fluid from his wrists, which he could apparently alter the physical state of at will.

The second was a tall black man in a totally white body suit and cowl, save for two read feathers, one running diagonally across his chest, and the other on the top of his cowl. Robin cold not imagine his superhero name being anything other than Featherweight, with the way he used the wind to float around as if literally a feather, then suddenly striking Gergoth-Gamer with what seemed to be the full weight of an adult male human.

The third newcomer seemed like a perverse hybrid of Batman and Reese Witherspoon in _Legally Blonde_, though her facial resemblance was closer to Jennifer Aniston that anyone. Her outfit looked vaguely like that of the Huntress, but her gear seemed to consist of grenades she launched from her purse and super-sharp credit cards that she was using like Batarangs.

The powerhouse of the group was undoubtedly the big guy in what looked like Juggernaut cosplay. He stood at least ten feet tall and had a massive girth to go with it, and his head was protected by a dome armor that quickly reminded Robin of Marvel's ancient mutant. Whenever he slammed into Gergoth-Gamer, however, the beast went reeling backwards usually taking a few stories of nearby buildings with him, and the big guy showed no signs of getting tired.

The final member looked like a creepy version of Wonder Girl, as if her all-American exterior was concealing a level of heart-Gothitude greater than Raven's or Death's. Her power seemed to be… er… control over her hair? The blonde locks carried her into the fight, shielding her from Gergoth's attacks and hurling cars and street signs at him.

"Who _are _those people?" Beast Boy asked.

"They're going to get themselves killed if we don't help them," Robin said. "I've seen the look that the Gamer had in his eyes before. If it's not par for his course, something ahs pushed him into a very vicious state right now…"

"Guys, calm down!" Ragnarok said running forward. "They're pros."

"WHO are they?" Robin asked again.

"They're the Odd Squad!"

**

* * *

**

"And then we shall put on our bathing suits and take the sun on the beach and flirt with guys we don't really want to have anything to do with!" Starfire declared gleefully.

Raven pulled the last article of her civilian clothes—a pair of cloth gloves—on to her hands and winced. "I don't think I'm up to flirting, Star," she said, "and I don't _do_ swimsuits."

"Just like you did not 'do fear'?" Starfire asked pointedly, referring to the time that the movie _Wicked Scary_ had frightened Raven so bad a manifestation of the monster made of her energy appeared in the Tower.

Raven's face turned red with annoyance and a nearby bouquet of flowers caught fire. "That. Was. _Different_."

"Oh, come, Raven! It shall be most delightful!"

"Kori, I told you that…._WHOA-_-!" Raven shouted as Starfire grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off down towards the resort shop. Raven tried planting her feet, but the alien overpowered her physically. Then Raven tried using dark energy to glue herself to the ground, but Kori even broke the bonds…

"Do not resist!" Starfire said with glee. "It shall be fun!"

**

* * *

**

The Gergoth jumped away from the battle, its massive grey legs propelling it above the buildings in the area. The Titans and Odd Squad pursued the rampaging beast across the rooftops of Miami. Suddenly it turned and belched a massive energy beam. Everyone but Beast Boy dived to the ground; Gar flew up instead, then swooped down as a pterodactyl, reaching to claw out the Gergoth's eyes with his talons.

"Denied, n00b," the gravelly voice of Gergoth said. A billowing cloud of silver fog erupted from his mouth and the blond-haired boy from before shouted at him.

"Don't let that stuff touch you! It'll turn you to stone!"

"Thanks for the advice!" Beast Boy muttered, transforming into a humming bird to avoid the gas and flying straight up. This left Gergoth's opened ribcage vulnerable to an attack, and Robin hurled in an explosive disk, which was quickly followed by a flurry of rock shards from Rag.

Obviously in pain, Gamer deactivated the Gergoth illusion and quickly replaced it with the T-091 Tyrant from _Resident Evil: Dead Aim. _

"Holy glomp!" Rag exclaimed jumping away from the creature even as one of its tentacle digits lashed out and slammed into the ground in front of him. "Anybody got a rocket launcher?"

The cadaver-esque creature charged forward, albeit quite slowly. It could still attack all the Titans and the Squad, however, because of its massive reach.

"Attack the tumor on the back of its neck!" shouted Featherweight. "Odd Squad, obliterate!"

Robin glanced at him and shrugged, then pulled his Bat-Grapple from his belt and ran forward, dodging the tentacles as the lashed out at him.

Suddenly, the Odd Squad attacked en masse behind him, the girl wrapping one arm up in her hair, and the boy spraying him with the goo from his wrist launchers, then instantly solidifying it.

"You can't beat us all, Matthew!" shouted the massive Odd Squad member as he slammed into Gamer from behind. Robin took the opportunity and jumped over the lashing tentacle and fired his grapple into the tumor on the Tyrant's neck.

The woman from the odd squad followed that with what looked like a credit card, only sharpened to a razor's edge and made of metal. The tiny projectile cut into the tumor then exploded in a flash, leaving the malignancy burst open an oozing digital puss and blood that vanished before hitting the ground.

The creature acted like it was about to die, but then reverted back to his normal form. Gamer jerked a GBA cartridge from his pocket and blew into it, then into an open slot on his wrist. He jammed the cartridge into the slot and pressed a button.

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Beast Boy shouted. "How many games does this dude carry around with him?"

"Too many," Robin bit out.

A flash of blue light surrounded the Gamer, and when it subsided, the Tyrant skin had been replaced by the white shirt and red vest of Marco from _Metal Slug._

"In this form," the massive Odd Squad member shouted dodging a grenade, "It's one hit kills both ways! Don't get shot!"

"That makes no logical or physical sense!" Robin growled. "What if I is just a wound to the foot or something?"

Marco jumped out of the way of an incoming storm of rocks and fired his pistol at Ragnarok. Rag dodged, away and shielded himself with what earth he could spare (which wasn't much considering they were fighting on the rooftops) before tripping and falling into the alley between two buildings. "AAAHH!"

Robin glanced back with an aggressive sigh that had the effect of saying, 'I hope he hasn't gone and gotten himself killed' and almost got shot because of it. He realized he couldn't take his eyes off The Gamer for one second in this form.

Of course it didn't last long considering. Robin dodged out of the way as a few more shots rang by, because the hair-girl from the Odd Squad had managed to get right behind the Gamer and opened up on him with a flurry of punches and kicks that sent him flying through the air. The blue light surrounded him again…

And he became Zero, the orange light-saber wielding robot from _Mega Man X._

Unfortunately, several credit cards and birdarangs later, Zero's inability to duck and crouch caused his HP to quickly deplete, and energy flashed around the Gamer again…

And he became Sephiroth.

"Not. Good!" Myss Pryss shouted.

"Joo n00bs just wouldn't listen to me. Now I'm gonna pwn you all!" the Gamer gave a single mad laugh that sounded something like a cat, if cats were able to laugh, and then held his hands up high and hovered into the air out of reach of any of the Titans or Odd Squad, and too far away for Beast Boy to make it in time…

"I use the Dark Materia!" he shouted. "I summon Meteor!"

"NOOOOO!" the large member of the Odd Squad bellowed, then trailed off. "What is Meteor?" The rest of the Odd Squad facevaulted.

"The most powerful attack ever!" shouted the blond girl. "It is exactly what it sounds like: a giant meteor that kills everything."

"What can we do to stop it?" Robin asked Ragnarok. Rag shrugged and looked at Beast Boy.

Gar winced. "Unless anyone here has a White Materia or knows how to cast Holy, then we're friggin' screwed."

Featherweight grimaced upon hearing Beast Boy's words, and ran forward, shouting up at Gamer-Sephiroth. "Matthew! End this now! You're gonna blow up the entire city if you do this!"

"I don't care!" he shouted back. "I'll just find a new city. Besides…" a sadistic smirk crossed his face, and one would imagine it was reflected in his visor-obscured eyes as well. "It's just a game!"

The Gamer's tone was obviously mocking, as if he had heard the same words used on him before.

"This is very, very bad!" Ragnarok said, starting to sweat…

"No." The boy in green from before walked up beside the Titans. He appeared to be about Rag's age, and he wore a typical hero mask, which was also green. On his chest there was a circle with the letters "SB" in the middle, obviously his logo.

"Hey, SB!" Rag shouted, not terribly consoled. "What do you mean?"

The meteor in the sky grew larger as it moved towards a panicking Miami…

But the blond youth simply looked at his watch and smirked. "Wait for it…"

"What…"

"Look up there. Right about…" Ragnarok turned his head, and then, SB said, "…NOW…"

Immediately, the Sephiroth disguise and the Meteor in the sky vanished, and everything returned to normal. The Gamer collapsed to his hands and knees, breathing heavily even has he began to freak out and start screaming at his wrist computer.

"NO! NO! NOT NOW! I always forget to monitor my time!" He shouted. "Restart! Restart!"

The blue energy simulated a dozen different console boot up sequences simultaneously, accompanied by appropriate sounds, from the simple tone of the original Game Boy to the rolling boxes of the Gamecube. "B00T! B00T!" The Gamer shouted.

He started smashing on his wrist when suddenly, a disc somewhere in his apparatus began spinning. Robin clenched his fists and ran forward, not wanting to give the Gamer another chance to transform into something… But suddenly blue power exploded around him and when it cleared…

There was a Chinese warlord standing in his place. The Odd Squad ran at him, even as recognition clicked in Robin's mind. "It's Lu Bu from _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_," he said, trailing off.

Suddenly, Lu Bu swung his massive halberd in a wide arc around in a circle and all five Odd Squad members went flying through the air.

"Um, no," Beast Boy said. "It's Lu Bu from _Dynasty Warriors_!"

"Enough of this!" Robin barked, running forward, even as the Gamer retreated. He noticed that there was a light irregular energy field around the Gamer, but paid it no mind, and only focused on dodging the strikes of his halberd and countering where he could with his bo-staff.

"Robin!" Featherweight shouted, "Stop! Don't pursue Lu Bu!"

Not even hearing him, Robin jumped over a low strike and made contact, with an upward stroke… that sent Lu Bu flying into the air. Robin immediately found himself delivering a flurry of blows towards his opponent, with impossible speed, barely transitioning between some of them.

A massive number counter appeared over the action, even as Robin continued to rack-up hits, until finally Robin smashed the Gamer over the head with his bo-staff. The world behind them flashed into a flurry of orange fire, and the staff made contact, sending the nerdy villain crashing into the rooftop unconscious. The number moved to the side of reality and words appeared so that it read:

**50 HIT COMBO!  
SUPER KO**!

Robin floated back down to the roof tops with impossible gentleness, confused as to what exactly had just happened.

"That was awesome, Robin!" Beast Boy said slapping his leader on the back.

"Very Capcom-ish," Rag agreed. "I give it a nine out of ten; you should have finished him off with a Hadouken!"

Robin shrugged. "**_HOW _**exactly did I pull that off, though?"

Featherweight walked over to him and said, "His energy field. It responds to the power of desire, but with him it is filtered through geek-colored glasses. If he doesn't have the field under his complete control, it warps reality directly around him to video game logic."

"Wonderful," Robin said dejectedly. "One more villain who can warp reality on a whim."

"Well, look at it this way," Beast Boy started. "He did 'show us lame'—it would have been harder to put on a lamer showing than that!"

Robin groaned and buried his face in his palm.

**

* * *

**

Fifteen minutes later, The Gamer was in the back of a police truck, all his video games removed from his person. The cops entered the driver's seat and took him back towards the jail, which he had escaped from three days prior.

And the Titans and Odd Squad had found a place to eat, the former now doubly hungry—not to mention exhausted—from the battle. It was an odd little corner café with a strange fusion of modern and 20th century sensibilities. One wall was red brick, another painted as a bright blue sky complete with rainbows. The ground level had a coffee bar and wi-fi internet café.

The upstairs housed the kitchen and VIP eating area, where, according to the Featherweight, (who confirmed himself leader of the Odd Squad), heroes tended to gather.

Like the Titans, the Squad ate out in costume, and now all eight heroes sat at a large round table awaiting their meal.

Gradually, the conversation turned from food to more interesting topics… "So, I take it you already know Ragnarök." Robin said.

"Indeed. He helped out quite a bit last time he was down here," Featherweight replied. "I don't supposed I've properly introduced myself." He extended a hand across the table and Robin tentatively took it and the two leaders shook. "The name is Arnold Irwin," Featherweight said.. "I suppose my hero handle is obvious." Arnold was a black man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He stood about six foot seven, and spoke with a noticeable British accent.

Arnold pointed to the dark-themed woman that looked like Jennifer Anniston. "This lovely lady is Kristen Burns, also called Myss Pryss. Don't be fooled by her name; she is anything but girly."

"Watch it, Feath," she warned. Turning to Robin, she then said, "I'm not really the social type. I used to play Batman up in Toronto before Canada outlawed superheroes. I'm technically not a super, but the law was enforced against me anyway. So I came down here."

"Why not New York?" Rag asked, apparently unaware of this detail from Kristen's past.

"New York has enough heroes: The JSA, Manhattan Guardian… _Spider-Man _and the _Turtles._ If the comics are to be believed, of course."

"See," announced the massive man on the other side of the table. "She does have a sense of humor when she tries."

"Speaking of jokes," said Beast Boy, what was with that Gamer guy we were fighting.

Featherweight sighed.. "Matthew Norris. What a case. He came into the possession of an alien super-intelligent reality-warbing energy from the seventh dimension. Now, Matt was an incredibly smart kid, but well, he was sort of lacking in other areas."

Myss Pryss elaborated. "See, Matthew was unfortunately born without an imagination. He had the ability to fulfil pretty much any wish he wanted, but he didn't have the ability to be creative. He could only make money if he was looking at an equal amount of it already, and even then it would fail a counterfit test."

"But," said Featherweight, "he was also an avid gamer. So he rigged the energy core through an ever-growing mesh of video game systems that he tears apart and reassembles as his battle suit. The energy filters though the games and whatevert he sees on his visor, it creates for him."

"So why did everything suddenly shut down before Meteor hit us?" Rag asked.

"The main power core he used when he built his unit, he had swiped from a Toy's R Us display case, and he forgot that it automatically reset itself every thirty minutes. So he can only use his powers for thirty minutes at a time before all the game systems reset on him."

"Why don't you just rip the suit off of him?" Robin asked. "If he can't imagine anything without it…"

"The suit has completely interfaced with her neural network," Arnold explained. "It can't be removed or disable without killing him."

Robin glanced at Ragnarök, but Rag shook his head. "I left the White Catalyst back at the Tower."

"Don't worry," said Kristen. "He is really one of our more minor foes. The ones you really need to watch out for are the big ones, like Dastard Lee."

"Indeed," said Featherweight.

"Yeah, yeah," the large man said with a sigh, "Enough about the villains! My name is Brent Harmon. They call me 'The Fatness'… I wish to Loki that I could find the immature little whelp that came up with that name and throw him into an archeological dig—a really muddy one on a really hot day outside. Yeah. See how he likes being a paleontologist."

"Dude, why not just change your name?"

"Already registered in the N-Double-A-MC. It's an act of congress to change your hero handle. Too much paperwork. I wanted to be called Girth and have a big stylized 'G' on my chest, but apparently some kid up north has already used that logo."

Now it was Robin's turn to be confused. "What exactly is the NAAMC?"

Now the lad in green was riled. He slammed both hands down on the table and stood up, then leaned forward into Robin's face. "You mean you've never heard of the North American Association of Metahuman Crime Fighters?"

Robin blinked. "… No." he said.

"UNBELIEVABLE!"

"Can it, SB," Featherweight ordered. "We aren't as prestigious as the League, but I'm surprised you haven't heard of us at all."

"Nope," Robin said shaking his head. "Nothing."

"So," Beast Boy asked, "what exactly does SB stand for?"

The blond teen looked down, his cheeks flushing red. He mumbled something that seemed to rhyme with 'Aht Oi' and then he didn't look back up.

"What did you say?" Beast Boy asked again. Ragnarök smirked a bit.

This time, the kid spoke a bit louder, but still in a low voice. "Snot Boy," he said.

Lacking restraint, Beast Boy burst into a fit of laughter. "You're joking, right!"

"Excuse me, BEAST BOY, Snot Boy bit out. I didn't actually CHOOSE this name. I wanted to be called something cool, like _Viscosity or Goo Kid_… But when the papers saw me shooting a transparent green liquid with the approximate viscosity of snot, what would you expect them to do."

"It didn't help that the villains kept referring to Johann as a 'snot-wristed brat'!" laughed the young blond girl with a devious smile.

"That is totally not funny, Mary!" Johann shouted back. "I told them I was Viscosity. They ignored me!"

"Yo-Han?" Beast Boy asked, pronouncing the foreign name phonetically.

Snot Boy looked up. "Yeah. Johann Gerstmann. I'm a German immigrant. I moved here young enough my accent isn't very promenade."

"Prominent, SB," Myss Pryss corrected. "Obviously English isn't his first language; lay off him."

About this time, 'Mary' reached across the table and pulled a breadstick from Johann's plate, dipped it in marinara sauce and ate it.

"Hey! That's my stick!" Johann shouted.

Mary finished eating it, then, three hands maid of her blond locks extended out to Robin, Ragnarok and Beast Boy. "Mary-Ellen Bernard," she said with an exaggerated smile. "But the public call me Hair-Girl."

"That's glomping creepy," Beast Boy said, borrowing a word from Rag.

And Ragnarok muttered, quietly, "You mean the hands or the smile?"

"You get used to it," Featherweight said with a non-committal chuckle.

"That talent actually saved all our lives once when Doctor Dastard Lee had us locked up in his giant flying island," said Myss Pryss, when she was suddenly interrupted.

"It was a TURTLE!" she shouted. "His fortress was a turtle, not an island!"

"Mary," said Kristen with exasperation in her voice, "we've been over this time and time again. It doesn't matter if it was a turtle or an island in the long run, does it? We crashed it into the sea and it shall remain there until some author decides to bring it back twenty years from now in the next circle jerk because they JUST CAN'T LET GO OF THE STUFF THEY READ AS A KID!"

Blank stares.

"…. Oops… Did I say that last part out loud?"

Her answer was the resounding crash of the fourth wall.

"Well, that was an interesting little rant," said Rag. "Maybe it's time we get back to the tower. Raven and Starfire are probably getting bored by now."

**

* * *

**

"YES, YES!" screamed Raven! "I'm experiencing pure, untamed adrenaline and loving every minute of it!" As the speedboat skimmed across the water, Raven found herself enjoying the vacation for the first time—and flying too—because she was hang gliding. And that meant she didn't have to put any emotional effort into doing so, hence, she was having fun for a change…

For the first time since Trevor died…

A pang of guilt smacked at Raven, but she pushed it aside. Partly because Trevor (probably) wouldn't want her to feel guilty over what Slade had done, and partly because negative emotions could cause her powers to blow up the boat or snap Starfire's nearby cord and send her hang glider plummeting into the ocean.

She sighed, re-centered herself, and relaxed. Even if she couldn't experience the fun in full, she knew one thing: she wasn't in any way, shape, or form, bored.

**

* * *

**

Soon enough, the Titans and the Squad received their appetizers and began to dig in, when suddenly, Mary-Ellen burst into a completely unprompted…

"MOO!"

"Moo?" Beast Boy asked, briefly morphing his facial features to that of a bovine.

"Here comes Buddy," she said.

The Titans and Odd Squad turned to see a young man walking in through the door on the balcony (which could only be accessed from the roof, allowing only superheroes in.)…

"Hey, Squad!" shouted the man, another blond, though a much dirtier shade than Mary or Johann. The one Mary had called Buddy had a light southern accent and wore a slightly disconcerting grin as he approached. "I see there are some new people here."

Robin only nodded, but Beast Boy greeted him more openly. "Hey, man. I'm Beast Boy, this is Robin," he said pointing to the leader, "and this is Ragnarok. We're the Teen Titans, from Jump City, on vacation."

"I think I might have heard of y'all out there. Well, I'm Buddy England. Actually my name is Brent Arnold England, but on the account of confusion, I go by Buddy."

"Wait a minute," Rag said." Your name is Brent." He pointed to The Fatness. "And your name is Arnold." He pointed to Featherweight. "And your name is _Brent… Arnold_?"

Buddy nodded.

"Wow, what are the odds of that happening within the same team?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well," said Buddy, "I'm not really a part of the Odd Squad; I just work with them closely sometimes."

"Buddy had helped us with some really major stuff and done some follow up investigations on some of our cases," Kristen explained.

"And to be perfectly honest," said Arnold, back when I was in Haworth there was a villain whose real name was Arnold Brentson

Robin glanced at him. "Haworth? As in Haworth, England? _Agnes Grey _and_ Wuthering Heights_ Haworth? What in the name of all that is holy were you doing there?"

Arnold facevaulted, and as an aside only to Robin, whispered, "With a power like mine, none of the big cities wanted me."

"Anywho," said Buddy. "Happy birthday."

"What?" Ragnarök eyed him quizzically. "My birthday isn't until January."

"Aw shoot," said Buddy. "I just figure that if I keep telling everyone I see happy birthday, I'll eventually guess right and have some sort of mysterious power over them"

"….Has it worked?"

Buddy hanged his head sadly. "Well, no. Not yet at least. But at least hearing it makes people feel a bit better even if it's not yet their birthday."

"You're friggin' weird, man," said Beast Boy. "What exactly is your hero handle or power or whatever?"

Suddenly, a web of blue polymer writhed over Buddy, dragging out something from underneath his clothing. When it subsided, he was now covered from head to toe in a full-body suit, light blue with a darker pair of boots and gloves, and a belt. There was also a big 'O' logo on his chest.

"They call me The Object," Buddy said. His namesake object turned out to be a small blue cube the approximate size of a 13" television, but much lighter. "It obeys my mental commands," The Object explained. "I can transform it into pretty much anything I want to."

"How exactly did you get it?"

"It's an alien polymer that the government reworked into something useful. The aliens just used it as an easy-to-operate door, apparently, because their space-tech weapons tear through it like tissue. But bullets are another story. And let's just leave how I found it un-discussed."

The Titans and Squad continued to talk amongst themselves for a minute, while Buddy went down stairs and grabbed a cappuccino.

When he came back up, he started to leave. "Adios," he said to them all.

"Wait!" Ragnarok said. "I've been dying to tell this joke for an audience, but Starfire won't get it and Raven might be offended by it. So, here goes: An agnostic, two nihilists, a deist, a Christian, and a Jedi all walked into this internet chat room—"

**

* * *

**

As Raven and Starfire hovered back on to shore, Raven became aware suddenly, once again, that she was having way too much fun. She started to repress her good feelings, when she suddenly felt a burst of happiness from Starfire.

"Glorious! The cones of snow!" she shouted, blasting off to grab as many as her nine stomachs could hold. Raven smiled lightly at this, happy that her friend was happy. And that felt really durn good.

Suddenly, a sinking feeling formed in the pit of her stomach, and Raven quickly suppressed the emotion. The source, she couldn't make go away so easily: there was a man standing on the resort's bar, staring directly at her. Normally the would have been just a creepy annoyance…

But this was a man she recognized…

She hovered over until she was close to Kori. "Star, I need to take care of something. Don't wander too far off. I might not be able to find you empathically with so many people in the area." Raven slipped the man behind the snow-cone counter a twenty dollar bill that Raven had sequestered in the Netherverse, much to his temporary fright.

"Okay," Star said absently as she happily licked at her mountain of snow cones.

"I wish more people were that easy to please," Raven commented as she flew towards the man on the balcony. Suddenly, she became very self-conscious about her swimwear. She still couldn't believe that Star had actually gotten her to wear a bikini. Thankfully it was on of the less revealing one's and part of Raven really liked the way it looked on her…

But it was hardly appropriate for the high company she was about to be keeping. Still, considering HE had come here in person, Raven rightly guessed it was very urgent.

She landed on the balcony much to the surprised stares of other patrons of the outdoor bar atop it, but she paid them no mind.

"What could possibly have brought you to Miami," Raven asked quietly, "…Jason Blood?"

"We should talk in a more private place," he said. And with a briefly spoken rhyme, the two mages disappeared in a flash of light.

**

* * *

**

"…**So **then the first nihilist says, 'THEY ARE LOCKED IN MY CAR!'"

Robin found himself suppressing his laughter, and Beast Boy was literally rolling on the floor by the time Ragnarok had finished his joke. And most of their main course had gone untouched.

Tears were streaming down Gar's face… But The Odd Squad and The Object seemed none too happy, all staring at Rag with annoyed looks on their faces.

"What? Tough audience or something?" Rag said with a nervous chuckle.

"I'm an agnostic," muttered Myss Pryss.

"We're nihilists," said Snot Boy and Hair-Girl simultaneously.

"I'm a Deist," said The Fatness

"And I'm a Christian," said Object.

Ragnarok goggled at all of them even as Robin and Beast Boy completely facevautled.

"You all can't be serious!" Rag said. "It was just a joke anyway!" he looked over at Featherweight, and said. "Come on, surely you found it funny!"

But Arnold gave a nervous chuckle, and said, "Actually, I… I'm a Jedi."

Ragnarok said and stared. There was just no way. There was _no glomping_ way that could be a coincidence! "You are all evil! I bet you throw snorkels at children!" he snarled without as much venom as his voice was pretending to have.

"Huh?" asked Mary.

"Snorkels?"

Suddenly, Object's watch beeped, and he ran off. "Oh, man, I have to get to work. Adios all. It's time I go medieval on evil!"

After a brief silence wherein everyone at the table ate, Brent asked again, "What was that about snorkels earlier?"

"Pay our friend's weirdness no mind," Gar said, wrapping his hands around Rag's shoulder's in a loose mocking embrace. "He's from another universe!"

"You mean you all never heard of the Snorkel Treason?" Ragnarök asked.

"Um…. No." said all the Odd Squad simultaneously.

"General Eisenhower commanded all his troops to use snorkels to crawl through the Nazi mustard gas fields and surprise their base… Using snorkels to breath above the gas. But then some Nazi sympathizer secretly cut holes into all their snorkels and the entire regiment died? None of you know about this?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Man, no wonder you guys throw snorkel around like it's a children's toy."

"Rag," Beast Boy said, "a snorkel IS a children's toy, dude."

"This universe continues to find new ways to frighten me," Ragnarok said somberly.

**

* * *

**

Subconsciously aware of what people would think of seeing a young girl in a skimpy swimsuit suddenly disappear with a much older man, Raven was slightly unnerved by what Jason Blood had just done. But she also trusted that he knew what he was doing.

"Hello, Miss Raven," Blood greeted her. "I merely need to speak with you of a matter of great importance."

"Yes?" Raven tried to keep her voice even as possible.

"First of all, I believe someone you know took something from me—a very powerful sword."

Raven's eyes widened. "He told me he had returned it." Raven clearly remembered Oz saying as much shortly before he was sent home.

"Ah, child, you are an empath. Surely you could have confirmed or denied such a statement."

"He—he knew me. He wasn't from here, Jay—Bl—Mr—" Raven trailed off…

"You may call me Jason," he said.

"Jason." Raven repeated. "He, the man who took your sword, was from another universe. He called himself Ozymandias and he had apparently used the sword before. He told me he won it by defeating… your other half."

"That boy defeated Etrigan! I think that sounds like more hollow bragging than a true claim of accomplishment. Nevertheless, he did know exactly where to find the sword in my home…"

"He used it to help me defeat my father…" Raven said, trailing off because of the expression on Jason's face.

"Yes. I know of his actions and his bravery through some sources that I'm sure wish to remain anonymous."

"What do they have to fear now that Trigon is gone?" Raven asked.

Jason looked her straight in the eyes, piercing her defenses. "I think you know the answer to that, Raven. The sword he stole from me is perhaps the most powerful on the planet. I dare not repeat it's true name or this entire hotel might have the wrath of Heaven called down upon it. In the English tongue it translates to 'He Who Would Dare Bare Fangs at God', often shortened to simply 'the Fang' by those few of us who are in the know."

"I understand, sir," Raven said.

"Please, don't call me sir. I haven't been 'Sir Jason' since the days of the Round Table. Nevertheless, the sword possesses the power to destroy planets, child. Listen to me. I must either retrieve the blade, or at least be sure it is safe."

"I know Oz had rough methods, but we were desperate," Raven said. "And… I don't know why—but I trust him. I do not think he would do anything with the blade unless he is absolutely certain it was safe. But I think I know one Titan who might know what he as done with it."

"The new one." Blood surmised. "The one from another world himself. So Ozymandias confided in someone like himself: A Stranger in a strange land." He breathed heavily, thinking things over in his mind. Finally he sighed and said, "I will accept this for now. If I see any indication that the sword is not safe, I will personally contact myself in his own universe, and we shall then see his true mettle. Now I must be off—AUGHH!"

Jason suddenly grabbed his head, holding it as if suddenly contracting a massive headache. "What is wrong?" asked Raven.

"Something approaches!" Jason shouted with unnecessary loudness. "Something deeply torn, something with a soul, yet deeply evil regardless.I cannot stay here. Whatever this foul fiend is, it fears me. It likely fears you too but cannot affect you in the same way it can me. This no doubt, due to your parentage." Blood vanished in another flash of light, his voice lingering a warning behind. "Raven, help your friends."

**

* * *

**

At the café, the Titans and Squad had finally finished their protracted meals and were preparing to pay the ticket, when suddenly, Object burst into the room again, scared and stumbling. He fell forward and hit his head on the table, and slowly got up.

"Ouch," said Beast Boy.

"You alright?" asked Featherweight.

"N-n-no… No!" He shouted. "He's back!" Buddy started alternating between stammering and not speaking at all.

"Who? Who is back, Buddy? Slow down!"

"O-Oh-oh…Over—Ov—ov.."

"No…" Featherweight whispered. "Not today! Not now!"

"You've got to be joking! Please!" Ragnarök demanded. "Not this again!"

"Who is back," this demand from Robin. "Who are we up against?"

And at last the Object spoke the name nobody wanted to hear:

"**O… OVERKILL**!"

* * *

_Well, the insaity is over. I'll try and be a bit more timely with the next one. _  



	17. Vacation: Overdoing Things

**Author's Notes: **The ending to this chapter may seem a bit non _sequitur_. Also, I apologize ahead of time for the absurd lenght. I just had a lot that needs to happen! All song lyrics used in this chapter were made up by me, so nobodie's copyrights were infringed. (Except for those of DC Comics, of course)

I do not own the Titans or Lex Luthor. The NAAMC and Overkill were created by my brother. I own only Ragnarok.

If you notice inconsistences with the real geography of Miami, please ignore them! I don't live there!**

* * *

Teen Titans in Colors**

**Chapter Seventeen**

_Overkill. _

The mood in the café went dead silent upon the utterance of the name.

"Overkill?" Robin asked. The name certainly sounded dangerous. He took one final bite of his shrimp scampi and then knelt on the floor beside Buddy. "Who is Overkill?"

"Really, really, BAD NEWS," Ragnarök said, running towards the door—the bathroom door!

"Where do you think you're going?" Robin shouted.

"I'm going to go hurl so that I don't lose my lunch in the upcoming bloodbath!" Rag shot back, by this time halfway down the stairs to the bottom floor where the bathrooms were.

Robin turned and looked at Featherweight. "What is going on? What makes Overkill so much worse than anyone else?"

"He's a demon," came the reply, but not from Featherweight; the speaker had been Myss Pryss. "A monster that feeds off destruction. The more he kills, the more he destroys, the more powerful he becomes…"

"Of course he _says_ he's a demon," said Hair-Girl. "I figure he's just some sort of manifestation of an angry murderer or something whose mind survive his body's death."

"Or he's a demon," said The Fatness dryly.

Hair-Girl glared at him. "Whatever," she said. "We have to stop him regardless." Bending over she wrapped The Object up in her metahuman follicles and brought him up to where he stood on his feet. "Are you okay, Buddy?" she asked.

After a moment of silence, Object softly said, "I'll be fine…"

By this time Ragnarok was out of the bathroom and ascending the stairs again. When he made it to the top, he said, "Well, we're the heroes. We have to do this even if it kills us."

"I take it you fought this guy on your last visit here," Robin said. "How did you all beat him then?"

"We DIDN'T," replied Rag, finishing off his last bit of soup. "We got our butts handed to us on burnt china until Atomic Man showed up and fought him off."

"Atomic Man?" Robin asked. "You mean Captain Atom?"

"No, Atomic Man."

"The Atom?"

"Atomic Man!"

"You mean Firestorm?"

"No, he's the NUCLEAR Man. I'm talking about ATOMIC Man!"

"Or are you talking about.… Atom Smasher?"

"NO!"

"Maybe… Atomic Knight?"

"NO!" Ragnarok shouted. "**_Atomic Man_**. Tall guy, in his thirties, wears a bright red body suit with a giant dark red 'A' on the chest—can't miss him!"

"I _must_ have missed him," Robin said. "Because I've certainly never _heard_ of him."

Myss Pryss shook her head. "How can you not know about Atomic Man? He's saved the world… several times! He operates out of High Rise City, Texas…"

"Never heard of that, either," Robin said. "But it doesn't really matter. We are going to try and stop Overkill, aren't we."

"_Try_ being the operative word," Hair-Girl said with no disguise on her pessimism. "Atomic Man is away in another dimension at the moment, so we are pretty much dead."

"Dudes, why don't we just call in Superman?" Beast Boy asked. "Surely he can help."

"Batman told me Superman was busy trying to thaw out Argos this week," Robin said dejectedly. "Besides we can't rely on the League to bail us out anytime there is a crisis."

Featherweight nodded. "Look, this is our fight. Overkill is our villain, not yours. If you chaps want to get out of town and call your friends, then go ahead."

"No!" Robin said, turning around. "This may not be Jump City, but we're here. We have to do whatever we can." Robin turned his head to his left slightly. "Beast Boy, call Raven and Starfire." Then he turned and looked at Rag. "Collin, call Cyborg and tell him to get to Miami ASAP, and to hail any Titans he can to join us."

"Right," the youngest Titans said in unison, removing their communicators and performing their respective tasks while Robin began to prepare himself mentally for the worst.

The worst asserted itself rather quickly. "Robin," Rag said approaching him, "I can't raise Cyborg. Something must be interfering with his communicator."

"We'll have to do without him."

"Buddy," said Featherweight, "what happened? Tell us what exactly what you saw."

"Well…" started The Object… I had just reached the corner of Kane and Finger when…

_I moved into the normal position where I survey that jewelry store that always gets robbed on the corner there, when I saw a shady figure in a dark overcoat and hat walk into the gun shop across the street. _

_In retrospect, putting a gun store directly across the street from a jewelry store (or vice versa) probably wasn't the best idea, but I digress._

_I transformed back into my civilian clothes and jumped down from the perch and entered behind the guy. I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible, but I also couldn't get a good view of his face. He was obviously trying to keep it as hidden as possible… I pretended to examine some guns in the back and he kept asking the clerk questions about the relative fire rate of all the shotguns there… He kept trying to explain they all shot as fast as you could pump them, but he wouldn't be satisfied…_

_So then I see him turn around and pull a shotgun off the shelf via the reflection in the mirror at the back. I still didn't see his face though, so I moved around.._

_Then it happened: a flash of power ran through the gun and he just shot the clerk dead, then turned and shot me in the chest, and I would have had my ribcage blown to pieces if the Object hadn't been acting as armor around me._

_I finally saw his face as he ran out the door. There was no doubt it was Mathias Lancaster. _

…so I sort of freaked out and came back here as fast as I could." When Buddy had finished, a grim silence fell over the group.

"Who is Mathias Lancaster?" Robin asked. "I though you said Overkill was a demon…"

"We'll explain on the way," Featherweight said. "We have to stop him before anyone else crosses his path…"

**0000**

"Did Beast Boy say WHERE the 'really bad dude' was?" Starfire asked as the two girls flew above Florida's most famous town (except for maybe Orlando. After all, Miami didn't have any famous actors named after it.)…

"No, but he said that once the fight started they wouldn't be hard to find." Raven sighed. Beast Boy once again proved he had no tactical sense at all. It occurred to her that he used to be with the Doom Patrol and used to regularly tangle with the Brotherhood of Evil… How did he ever survive long enough to be kicked off? (Or did he quit?)

And for that matter, what was the Brotherhood doing _now_?

**0000**

Somewhere in Paris…

Deep in an underground lair…

A giant gorilla spoke. "So, vhat are vhe going to do tonight, Brain?" it asked.

And an electronic voice responded, "The same thing we do every night Mallah: try to take over the world."

(They're Mallah. They're Mallah and the Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain Brain!)

**0000**

"We have to get out of here, demon!" Mathias screamed at his tormentor. "That guy we shot in the gun shop was the Object, and you _know_ he didn't die. The heroes are going to show up soon."

_**Let them come!** _The voice inside him said. _**They will provide more destruction with which I can empower myself.**_

"To me, THAT is a BAD THING!" Mathias said, his voice full of venom. He slouched against the wall of the rain drainage tunnel and letting himself sink down till he sat in the foul water that had run from the streets and sidewalks. "You'd think after nearly four years you'd get that I don't want you in my body."

**_What you want is insignificant. Eventually I will become powerful enough that you cease to exist and this body is mine forever. I have long tolerated your insistence on killing only the 'bad' people of this pathetic realm. Do not test my patience._**

"You made me—made my arms shoot a man for no reason other than you wouldn't believe him about shotgun mechanics!" Mathias started to sob… What a weakness, he thought. He would never have done this before. Nothing could get to him then…

**_Things aren't the way they were before, Mathias_**. Overkill said.

A symbol began to appear and glow on Mathias' forehead, a very familiar symbol to you, readers. Not the mark of Scath, no. Something much older…

"Gone, crude flesh…" Mathias started, the pressure on his mind growing. It was always this; he either submitted and unleashed the demon, or he resisted and it overpowered him… Either way…. "_With power fill this frail body_… **_OVERKILL!_**"

The transformation began, and Mathias' mind went numb as he lost control over his body. And heaven help whoever got in Overkill's way today.

**0000**

"He used to be a cop," Myss Pryss said as the nine heroes flew on a big platform that the Object had stretched his Object into. "A real good one."

"What happened?" Robin asked.

Featherweight picked up where she had left off. "Lancaster had been tracking an occult enclave that had been disturbing the peace and sacrificing kittens for months. Eventually he tracked them to an abandoned school that they had converted into a grim parody of a church, and found several hovering over an altar about to engage in a human sacrifice. He and his partner busted in and shot or subdued pretty much all of the bloody gits... But when he started to free the girl they were going to kill, one of the acolytes jumped to his feet even after being shot with a magnum revolver and stabbed Mathias in the stomach, and he fell on the altar."

Myss Pryss picked up again, "Mathias' partner said that she shot the remaining acolyte four more times before he died, but something happened when Mathias' blood ran down the alter—"

"They actually summoned a demon?" Robin asked. "How is that possible?"

"I don't even want to know," Featherweight said. "Somehow it bonded itself to Mathias', and over the past few years has gradually taken more and more control over his actions. He tries to let it feed by only killing bad people, but it craves death and destruction. They empower it, and if he refuses to obey, it overpowers him."

"It controls his actions?"

"No. It _commands _him to act on his darker impulses. It can force his hand in a very limited manner, but it still isn't strong enough to completely dominate his psyche."

"And you definitely don't want to see him after he's destroyed a building," Ragnarok said gravely. "He gets stronger physically the more stuff he blows up, and the demon's control grows more absolute."

"Is there any way to separate the man from the demon?" asked Robin.

Featherweight sighed. "The NAAMC has been trying to find a solution for years, but with no luck…"

"What exactly can he do?"

"Enhanced strength and agility, flight, fireballs," Myss Pryss said, as if reading from a laundry list. "Oh yeah, and he can turn ANTYHING he touches into a weapon. And any WEAPON he touches into a BETTER weapon until he is no longer holding it."

Beast Boy audibly gulped, and silence reigned until he spoke again after what seemed like a few minutes…

"Um… guys!"

"What is it?" Robin leaned over the edge and looked to where Beast Boy was pointing…

"That's him!" Object said, stating what had become painfully obvious. The Object's flyer swooped down and dropped off the Titans and Odd Squad, then vanished, reforming into a big hammer that Object immediately brought down across Overkill's head, though to little effect.

Robin landed hard on his feet, but he finally got a good look at their opponent…

Overkill stood roughly seven feet tall, and sported a muscular build somewhere between Superman and The Incredible Hulk. His entire body was covered in a dark grey (so as to be almost black) suit that looked like it must have had armor in it, but gave no concrete evidence that this was the case. The demon's face was concealed behind a mask that alloyed only slits for breathing and sight. Two small horns protruded from the monster's temples and those were framed by a mane of long hair, silver with black streaks…

Snot Boy inched his way towards the three Teen Titans, and whispered, "Watch his horns. They may look small now but they grow like _Hellboy's_ once he kills a few people."

"Thanks for the advice," Robin muttered, drawing his back-up bo-staff. The original had been damaged in the fight against Lu Bu-Gamer and he had only been thankful he hadn't brought the Shenlong Staff that the True Master had given him…

Overkill stopped allowing the heroes to mince words and immediately attacked, running forward and jumping towards the gathered teenage boys, who immediately scattered.

"Titans, GO!" Robin shouted.

"Odd Squad, Obliterate!" echoed Featherweight.

The two teams blasted forward, Fatness slamming into Overkill with his massive girth and knocking him back towards the place he was when the fight started. Overkill responded by hurling a couple of fireballs at Fatness, and then ran towards Hair-Girl. The young woman dived out of the way even as the airborne Featherweight suddenly increased his density back to its maximum and slammed his feet into Overkill's head from above. This was immediately followed by a duo of credit cards thrown by Myss Pryss. They slammed into Overkill's shoulders, digging in at least a centimeter before simultaneously exploding.

"Mathias," shouted the Canadian, "stop this at once. Fight the demon and take back control!"

Overkill said nothing, blasting for a nearby intersecting street. Before any of the Titans could match his incredible speed, he slammed into the hood of a parked car, dug his fist in, and hurled it at the Titans and the Squad. They dove out of the way, all except for Fatness. Object flung him into the air, and the huge man literally batted the car out of the sky before crashing into Overkill and sending him tumbling back into the window of a nearby toy shop.

"Dang," Beast Boy said. "Look at him go. Doesn't he ever get tired?"

"No," said Snot Boy. "That is his power—he never gets tired in a fight as long as he intakes more calories than he loses in a day. He's like a human Mr. Fusion."

"More or less," the nearby Hair-Girl agreed. "Though _real_ fusion is Atomic Man's trademark."

Then Ragnarök spoke. "You know it just occurred to me the Squad and Titans have a lot of odd things in common. Teen Titans live in Titans Tower and had a traitor named Terra, and took on the Terrible demon Trigon. The Odd Squad lives in the Odd Office, had a turncoat named Origami a couple years ago, and fights a demon named Overkill the Obliterator."

"Ragnarok," Robin said. "Please just shut up and fight!"

Robin's last word was distorted with a half-gasp half-scream as fireballs exploded from the toy shop over the heads of the heroes, and windows up the shop building's upper levels began to burst as Overkill fired straight up through the floors, then ran out of the building even as it collapsed.

"How far is the city evacuated to?" Object asked, stepping forward…

Featherweight looked at the screen his communicator and sighed. "Not good." He pressed a few buttons, even as Beast Boy assumed the form of a gorilla and launched himself at Overkill even as Hair-Girl tried her best to restrain him with her unusual talent.

The face of a rather unpleasant looking man appeared on the screen.

"Mayor, how is the evacuation of the city coming?" he asked a trace of hostility in his voice.

"That is not your concern, 'hero'," the man on the other end replied in a tone that made it clear he did NOT consider Featherweight a hero.

"Mayor, that thing that destroyed two blocks a few months ago is BACK and we need the town as empty as possible or we are talking major casualties…"

"Dodge Island has been designated as a battle ground for your kind, hero," the mayor said. He sounded to Robin more like a general than a mayor.

"Sir, we can't always control where and when a battle will take place. We are currently directly to the east of Seybold Canal; Dodge Island is sixteen blocks away! There is no way we can direct the fight there. I repeat, it is impossible…"

"No!" Robin said. "When Raven gets here she can teleport the demon to the Island for you. Just give her time."

Suddenly, as if to dispute Robin's words, Overkill burst from a nearby building holding an elephant rifle… And true to his name, the rifle began to surge with demonic power, morphing into something totally unlike its former state. Once the transformation was over, the massive barrel seemed big around as a basketball from where Robin was standing.

"HOLY GLOMP!" Ragnarok cried, trying to fill the barrel with dust. He only partially succeeded, and Overkill's first round exploded from the barrel at an angle, striking a television helicopter… which promptly erupted into a ball of flame. It wasn't okay. Nobody could see their parachutes…

"NO!" Robin screamed, jumping towards Overkill with his bo-staff ready to pummel the demon. Suddenly, streaks of yellow hair shot out to restrain him.

"Chill out," Hair-Girl said. "They stopped using manned news choppers years ago in Miami."

Robin blinked at her and glanced back at the demon, who had three different heroes, Fatness, Object, and Beast Boy, trying to pin him to the ground—Beast Boy in the form of a large rhino.

Beast Boy jumped into the air and fell back down as a Cironeilian Chrysalis-Eater, and attacked Overkill with his massive insectoid body, snapping with his pincers. The two claws grabbed Overkill's arms and wrenched him of the ground. Beast Boy started to squeeze them tight and pull outward, trying to rip Overkill's arms out of their sockets.

But the demon wouldn't have that, and gave a feral growl as fire blasted from the slits in the mask. It came with surprising speed and Gar screamed as he recoiled, dropping Overkill and reverted to human form. His face didn't stop smoldering until Snot Boy blasted him with a cool green slime that Beast Boy immediately tore off his face and started making remarks about how gross it was.

"Dude," Snot Boy said, "Chill. I just saved you years of reconstructive surgery." Then he ran off, blasting Overkill with more liquid, though considerably hotter than what he used against the fire on Beast Boy's face.

Gar ran up beside him, and attacked as gorilla, throwing things at Overkill that the demon batted out of the sky. "Where exactly does all that stuff come from?"

"It comes from a whole giant ocean of the stuff. It is on a dead planet far away. My suit has a miniature portal open to the place constantly so that I never run out of goo…" Suddenly, Snot Boy ran out of goo.

"…Except during low tide," he said with a groan, dodging as Overkill lunged for them, lashing with his massive clawed fingers.

Unfortunately, Beast Boy wasn't watching where he was going and slammed into a wall, smacking his green head against the hard red brick. He briefly saw stars as a massive headache developed in his skull.

Overkill took advantage of the situation and darted towards Beast Boy, grabbing a street sign in mid run… And demonic energy emanated from him and turned the sign into a sharp spear that he thrust at Beast Boy's chest…

Suddenly, the weapon stopped inches from his solar plexus.. and Gar noticed it was now coated in a black energy. The spear bent up into a worthless shape before falling to the ground. It instantly reverted to a normal—albeit now mangled—street sign.

"Raven!" Beast Boy shouted, looking up but unable to see her because of the overhanging metal awning of the building he had slammed into.

Rocks—actually chunks of what used to be road—coated in black energy slammed into the demon, which jumped into the air to escape. Beast Boy ran after him even as two massive wings unfolded from their former position pressed tightly against the demon's back, and he began to fly upward and away…

Only to have a stream of bright green energy blasts to slam into him, knocking him to the ground. "Starfire!" Beast Boy shouted.

Robin and Ragnarok suddenly arrived, with an ice-disk and a wave of dirt respectively, slamming into Overkill, and driving him to the ground. Snot Boy, apparently finally having gotten his weapons working again, doused the dirt-covered demon in another wave of his goo, and immediately increased the viscosity to near-solid levels. The demon tried to escape but could not due to the strength of his new prison. He sank down, gradually resting to where the only motion he had was limited movement of his head.

"What is this thing?" Raven asked, clearly alarmed.

"Evil demon, called Overkill, really bad," Beast Boy summed up for her quickly.

The rest of the Odd Squad and The Object arrived almost immediately after he finished, and gathered around their captured adversary. Myss Pryss was the first to speak. "Mathias… are you in there? Fight this thing inside you or something." She then muttered something to the effect of being too young for this sort of thing…

"MP is right," Object said. "You have resisted that thing before; do it again."

A feral growl from inside let the gathered heroes know that Mathias had definitely left the building. And it couldn't help be noticed that he kept staring directly at Raven.

"What do you want with me?" she asked after a few moments…

The demon replied by blasting a wall of fire from his mouth again, but Raven blocked it with a shield of black energy, and blasted back, slamming into the demon's face, shattering his mask and revealing the twisted, rune-covered face of what might once have been a handsome youngish man. Now it was bony, pasty white, and the eyes were reversed so that white was black and the iris was red.

"When the demon is in control he doesn't talk, at least not with his vocal cords," Fatness explained. "He thinks he is above humanity."

Overkill gave a light smirk at this, a clear statement of agreement. Then he closed his eyes and looked like he began to concentrate hard… and a symbol appeared on his forehead and began to glow…

Robin gasped in alarm, for it was a symbol he was all too familiar with… "That is the symbol…" He said, trailing off..

"You." Raven accused… "You are the one that gave Emmanuel those powers, who took his soul away from him…"  
**  
_NOTHING WAS TAKEN THAT WAS NOT FREELY OFFERED_**_**DAUGHTER OF TRIGON.** _

…The demon's voice boomed loudly in her mind. But his face did not change, and the symbol only glowed brighter.

Raven studied the symbol closely and smirked. "You know the Order," she said. "Trigon was given power over—"Before Raven could finish speaking the timely revelation, the ground around them all suddenly became very hot, and the Titans and Odd Squad darted out of the road as the asphalt began to melt…

Then all hell broke loose, as pipes underneath the road began to boil the water within them, causing geysers of steam to erupt all around the neighborhood, and scalding people still in the buildings who were minding their own business by washing their hands or showering…

Raven glanced back at the demon, which was now surrounded in a blaze of heat… And with a sharp gesture of the head, Overkill hurled a massive ball of fire into the sky, even as the rumble of the ground built to a breaking point and stopped.

The fireball arced into the sky, and Overkill smiled with glee. The broken mask on the ground floated up and reassembled itself across Overkill's face, and all around the area people began shouting.

"He said Dodge Island was evacuated, right!" Robin blurted, running over to Featherweight. The fireball had reached the top of its arc and was starting to come back down right on the Titans' heads. "The mayor said…"

"Yes!" Featherweight cut him off, "but what good does that do us?"

Robin whirled around, and said, "Raven, no time to discuss. Bat that thing onto Dodge Island now. Use whatever it takes…"

"Right…" Raven said nervously. She knew he wanted to avoid batting it into the water because of potential ecological damage or demonic corruption of fish or something—she was only getting vague images from his mind. Raven hovered above the ground, looking around quickly; her mind was racing from adrenaline… the fireball was fast approaching.

Suddenly, she spotted a big transfer truck a block away, and summoned as much of her power as she could muster… "_AZARATH_. **_METRION. ZINTHOS_**!"

The truck was immediately coated in black energy and hovered off the ground, nearly breaking in two as Raven brought it up to the fireball. Then she used the cab as a fulcrum and the trailer as a baseball bat, smashing the ball of fire onto the distant surface of Dodge Island.

**_KRAKALOOM!_**

Half the island went up in massive ball of red fire that lit up all of Miami, casting a red glow over the whole town. On the island cars and buildings turned to molten metal and ash in an instant, and what was left over caught flame and continued to burn. Some of the water around the island was vaporized as well…

The effect was instant—power from all the chaos and destruction shot into Overkill and he grew several inches taller, and immediately burst from his makeshift prison, his wings extending out and flapping once, and his horns grew to a full twelve inches. He lifted off the ground and hovered in the air for a minute before blasting towards the distance. The heroes glanced down that direction and gasped when a car full of burglars running from the police was consumed by the blast, exploding in front of the cop car and causing it to roll over and crash into a glass storefront.

Starfire snarled something fierce in Tamaranian—something that roughly translated to 'due process of the law' in English, albeit with a few unkind words thrown in—and unleashed another flurry of Starbolts on her foe, blasting him backwards. Raven ran forward and hovered in front of him.

"You will end this now, demon!" she shouted at him, and then held out her hand. "_Thacsk nogirot_!" A spell flashed from her hand and the Mark of Scath appeared on Overkill's chest, glowing red, then white, as if heating up…

Obviously the attack was working, as Overkill reeled from the glowing insignia—as if it burned and nauseated him—his eyes flashing something fierce as a feral growl escaped his jaws. He blasted the ground in front of Raven, sending volatilized asphalt flying towards her, chunks of solid asphalt pelting her as she reacted. Her demon's blood protected her from the burns a human would have received, but it was clear that she wasn't feeling good. Overkill charged forward through the vapors and smashed Raven into a nearby building, where her head hit the wall hard…

Starfire flew down and blasted him in the face again, but he quickly dodged out the way of her follow-up punch, grabbed her by the arm, and hurled her far away. Robin saw this and screamed with rage, jumping forwards and smashing at Overkill with his bo-staff. Overkill stood and did nothing, and the staff impacted against his shoulder, then broke in half…

But with lighting fast reflexes, Overkill grabbed the airborne end of the staff, and with a flash it became a broken katana. Robin gasped and jumped away, but the half-blade came down and sliced a huge gash in his arm, then Overkill spun and kicked Robin backwards.

"STOP WITH THE CUTTING AND THE MAIMING!" shouted the voice of Hair-Girl. Suddenly a group of cars was airborne, hurled through the air by her super-powered follicles. The cars slammed into Overkill's shoulder and chest and sent him flying backwards until he flapped his wings in reverse, allowing himself to stop in the air.

The demon grabbed the muffler of the last car and transformed it into a Tommy-Gun, and then unloaded in Hair-Girl's general direction. The heroine dived out of the way and hid behind a stone column.

Featherweight tried to intervene, and he and Fatness charged together, the latter pummeling while the leader picked pressure points and slammed into them with his aerial style of combat—then he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg and found that Overkill had partially stabbed a horn into his fibula. Featherweight fell to the ground from Overkill's massive height and landed on his free leg, then rolled over onto his back, unable to support his sudden increase in density (and consequential increase in mass) on one leg…

Raven, through clenched teeth, pulled Robin to the side and grabbed his arm. The Boy Wonder was having trouble keeping his mask from filling with tears—sure, he had suffered worse wounds, but not from a demonic sword. So it hurt. A lot.

Raven's energy flowed over the wound, and the bleeding slowly stopped, but the cut did not fully heal, and the pain was only dulled, not gone. Robin glanced over at Raven and saw that she had passed out during the healing!

"Raven! Raven!" Robin stifled a curse and bent down to check her vital signs.

**0000**

Invisible energy from the chaos all around flowed into the demon, and Overkill's body began to grow larger still, quickly growing to the point where he towered over the buildings in the area and cast a dangerous glare down towards the Titans and Odd Squad on the ground…

"This is so not good!" Beast Boy said with a gulp.

A few yards away Robin cradled Raven's unconscious form, and administered a light stimulant, hoping he could get the half-demon to wake up… Her pulse was fading, and suddenly, Robin realized she wasn't breathing. He swore, and sprayed his half-melted mask with a solution that dissolved the adhesive, then tore the stinking thing off his face and began to administer CPR to Raven…

In the meantime, Ragnarok and Snot Boy were tag-teaming Overkill's uber-form, pelting it with rocks and trying to hold his now-massive feet in one place as long as they could. Rag looked back to realize that the fight had moved nearly all the way to the shore front, and he could look out across the bridge and see Dodge Island burning still from the massive blast that had originally started turning the tide of this fight…

Robin pressed hard on Raven's chest thrice and then tried to revive her again, forcing himself to put other thoughts out of his mind and revive Raven with mouth-to-mouth…

Starfire pretended not to notice Robin and Raven's lip lock of necessity and hurled both Object and Fatness—which she was growing rather tired of carrying, especially the latter—at Overkill's huge form, and both heroes started pounding the side of his head, especially trying to break off those sharp horns that had nearly skewered Featherweight earlier.

Then the Tamaranian princess circled around, dodging the monster's blasts of fire breath and grabbed onto his hair and jerked, flying backwards as hard as she could…

At the same time Rag and SB wrapped his legs in a torrent of sand and the trademark goop respectively and jerked hard forward, causing Overkill to give a cry of pain and anger—but mostly anger—as he fell back and slammed into the concrete.

Snot Boy turned his geysers to the nearest building and spewed forth a bite sized tsunami that acted like it was going to slam into the building. Then he solidified it into a spongy solid material, allowing him to run up it like ramp. He continued to bury Overkill in goo from atop the building…

"How is the evacuation coming!" Robin shouted over his shoulder. He had got Raven breathing again, but she still had not come around.

The wounded Featherweight cradled his leg and stared at his communicator. "As well as it can with Mr. Idiot the mayor of this city. We were better off under Alvarez, but often times things that are desired are not those that can be obtained."

"You mean 'You can't always get what you want'?" asked Beast Boy, who was nearby resting for a moment before he jumped back into the fray…

Featherweight cocked his head sideways and then said, "You know, that is awful concise. I like it."

_Dude, does Britain exist in some alternate reality_, Beast Boy thought briefly… _Or is it Miami that does?_

Thoughts of other realities caused Gar to glance at Ragnarok, who was trying to bury the struggling Overkill in sand even as the demon crawled forward… And grabbed a motorcycle, crushing it in his powerful grip. Then his evil energy filled the chunk of metal and when it was done reshaping, the bike was now a big black machete.

Ragnarok gasped, stepping farther back towards the beach, even as Overkill's wings exploded to their full span from his back, now so large that they broke through the storefronts on the street, shattering glass and brick alike. Some mannequin heads rolled across the ground underscoring what the wings would have done had the buildings not been empty…

And the relatively mild amounts of destruction still imparted their energy into Overkill and he stood up all the faster and took to the sky again.

"Ugh," Ragnarok said, running out of the street over to check on Featherweight. "Glomp it all, it's too bad Jonah's wrist launchers can't shoot holy water," he muttered.

"Yeah. It's too bad the Atlantic isn't filled with—" Gar's eyes suddenly lit up, and he seemed to have an idea. "DUDE! That's it!" he shouted.

"What?" Rag asked.

"No time to explain," he said, turning into a cheetah and dashing off.

"Where are you going?" Collin shouted, even as Fatness slammed hard into the pavement in front of him, causing him to jump back.

"Back to the hotel!" Gar answered. "I have a plan!"

"Yeah.. Great," Rag said, partially in shock from the battle. "A plan. I like a plan. I voted for Kerry—he had a plan. Or at least I would have… had I been old enough to vote in that election. Voted for Kerry, I mean… Plans are good."

Elsewhere, Overkill grabbed Object and started to squeeze his body with a crushing force. "AHH!" Buddy grunted and screamed with pain, when suddenly Myss Pryss landed atop his huge arm and slashed her lipstick whip into the demon's face, chest and arm, leaving small scratches in his armor. Then she pulled out what looked like a checkbook, and removed what looked like a check. Looks can be deceiving, however. This was a lesson Overkill quickly learned when Myss Pryss hurled the check at his face, and it splattered into a sticky goo upon contact.

This was bad for Overkill, because at the same time he sent out a burst of fire breath to roast Kristen and Buddy, but unbelievably, the goo on his face held, and the mask cracked as fire shot out if his vision slit; it was obviously the thing had nearly been blown off his face.

As the demon was reeling from the self-inflicted pain, Myss Pryss jumped off his arm and landed next to where Buddy had landed and then got pulled him out of harm's way. Overkill lashed his machete down towards where Object had been standing; the impact created a massive divot in the ground, and the road around it melted slightly.

All the heroes still able to attack—except Robin—rushed Overkill, trying to get that blasted weapon away from him. The demon responded by grabbing a nearby car and turning it into a really big rocket launcher. He fired a few rounds at the Titans and Squad, and they scattered, Object shielding himself and Snot Boy with his object, and Ragnarok making a huge sand castle with his power to avoid being blown to pieces. Starfire hovered over the castle, blasting away with Starbolts that seemed increasingly ineffectual against the massive demon… Still, Raven had strongly expressed doubts that they would work at all against him, and Star decided that something was better than nothing.

Starfire flew in hard and fast, dodging to the side as he swung his machete and unloaded built up solar energy right into the demon's face, blasting his head back some. Starfire flew up when she heard the wind and narrowly avoided the incoming slash of Overkill's blade—then pain shot through her lower body as she was horrified to realize he hadn't missed entirely, and Star looked down to see the end of her boot had been cut off, and blood was leaking from the toe. But she didn't have time to examine the damage closely..

The pain of the attack and anger she felt towards the demon for all he had done swelled up inside her, and Starfire blasted the machete with everything she had left. The bolt struck near the hilt and shattered the thing. The broken top half of the blade fell to the sand and transformed back into the front half of a motorcycle.

Then Star faded backwards, exhausted from the exertion, and Overkill smashed her into the sand with the blunt end of his rocket launcher, where she lay, hoping her body recovered before she bled herself unconscious.

The damage the first few rockets had caused empowered Overkill all the more, and he flew off, his mask and armor fully healed… And as he flew, he randomly began blasting things throughout Miami with his rocket launcher and his fireballs, trying to make sure his power continued to increase.

Meanwhile, Raven was gradually coming to. Robin cradled her head as she sat up, and Raven began massaging her own temples. "Where is he!" She asked ask the circumstances of her concussion came back to her.

"He flew off," Robin said pointing towards a speck in the distance with his uninjured arm. "He's now just blasting things randomly with fireballs… To get even stronger…"

"How long have I been out?"

Robin gave her a rough estimate, and then she looked at his arm. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more to help."

"It's just a cut. It can wait, and you healed it enough that I can still fight. It's not bleeding." Robin looked out there. "What was that you did earlier? When you made the mark of Scath appear on him—it looked like it hurt him. A lot."

Raven's head finally seemed to clear, and she nodded. "Where are the others? I don't want to have to explain more than once… and why does my mouth taste like shrimp scampi?"

Brushing off the question but not quite able to hide his blushing, Robin thumbed down towards the beach in the distance. "The fight went that way."

Raven looked that direction, and black energy suddenly surrounded the two, and they teleported to the beach. When they arrived, Ragnarok was already there in the ruins of a massive sand castle, but the rest of the beach was empty. Smart people.

"Raven!" Ragnarok screamed, "Am I glad to see you!" He ran over towards her and pointed to some minor injuries on his face.

"Rag, I don't think that it's necessary… Where is Beast Boy?"

"He ran off to the hotel, he said he had to get something…"

Suddenly, Raven's eyes shot wide and she gasped, the emotions having hit her like a back draft. "Kori!"

Raven turned and flew across the beach until she came to where the Odd Squad had gathered around the injured Tamaranian on the beach. "Are you all alright?" she asked them.

"Except for Fearless," Fatness said, thumbing towards Featherweight, "more or less."

Raven nodded, noticing the way their leader favored one leg over the other, and bent down next to Starfire… She turned her over and saw the girl, sand covering the arm and leg that had been cradling the most weight. And her foot—part of the boot was gone, and so was the end of Starfire's big toe. Raven grimaced, and reached into herself, healing the wound as best she could and taking the pain into herself before expunging it…

Through gritted teeth, she said, "That is the best I can do for now. You're going to want to fly everywhere you go for the next few months," she said.

"If we _survive_ that long,"Hair-Girl remarked, stroking her strained follicles as if they had feeling. (Did they?)

"Of course we're gonna survive," a new voice proudly announced.

The Titans recognized it instantly, of course. They looked up and saw Cyborg hovering over them in the T-Car.

"VIC!" Ragnarok blurted.

"Cyborg!" Starfire said with happiness, despite her foot still being in pain. "It is most glorious to see you here!"

Robin smirked. "I was just about to try calling you again." He glanced over and saw Raven healing Featherweight's leg, and then back to his second-in-command.

"Mad Mod set up some sort of radio interference and starting blasting British music all over the place, so there was no signal but his. After I beat him, I saw the beginning of the fight on TV," Vic explained, "and did some research on Overkill. When I found out about last time, I got my metal butt over here right away. I also saw a green cheetah heading south when I first arrived… Where was that little grass stain going?"

Robin gave a weak shrug and motioned to Rag, who pointed off towards their hotel in the distance. "He said he had a plan. Which I liked. The plan, I mean. Or really the fact that he had one. I'm not certain what the plan was, but I'm sure it's a good one. Or at least I thought it was at the time."

Robin groaned.

"So now that we all here and healed up, how are we going to stop him?" Featherweight asked, finally standing up and testing out his Raven-repaired leg…

"I'm not sure if what I did before will work if he keeps blasting things. At this rate—" Raven was cut off when Cyborg stepped forward with a grim nod. "Already covered," he said.

Suddenly, the T-Ship swooped in from out of the atmosphere and started blasting Overkill several times before separating. The individual sections circled around him again and then charged, all crashing into him one at a time and exploding on impact… When the smoke cleared, the injured Overkill fell to the ground somewhere in the distance.

"You just destroyed the T-SHIP!" Robin blurted. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking we can build another one," Cyborg said. "We _can't_ rebuild people he's reduced to ash."

Robin gave a low growl when Vic reminded him of how many lives were at stake and how many might have already been lost… "Raven, you were saying," Robin started, changing the subject for his own sake.

She sighed, and began to explain. "Ever since Oz helped us destroy Trigon, I've been doing some research. Untold years ago, there were ten demon overlords, the arch-demons of various dimensions, or as we would call them today, 'devils'. They were all different, all evil, and united in only one aspect: they were all united against Heaven and all that is decent in the world."

"Which isn't very much," Myss Pryss and Hair-Girl said in unison.

"But they knew they were prone to rebellion and infighting, and that a house divided against itself can't stand. So they set up a system where each of the demons would have power over exactly one other, and no two would have power over the same one."

Raven held her hand out and dark energy formed ten small circles arranged in around a center circle. Robin gulped when a pentagram appeared in the 'number one' slot. Then the symbol on Overkill's head appeared in the second. The third through seventh slots were filled with symbols Robin didn't recognize, or left blank, but then the mark of Scath appeared in the eight slot.

"I don't know the names of all the demons in this, or their symbols. And I don't _want_ to know. But Trigon… Trigon was given power over the demon of the number two slot, Apollyon—before Apollyon was banished to the Pit."

"And this relates to Overkill how?" Rag asked.

Robin's eyes widened. "That is why Emmanuel freaked and ran away—because Overkill is a servant of Apollyon…"

"And Overkill was the one who gave Emmanuel his powers," Raven said. "I think I know why, too." Raven glanced pointedly at Rag, who sweatdropped.

"Last time I fought him, I might have kind of said 'Trigon's daughter sends her regards,' right before I smashed him with a stone hammer…"

So, Robin realized, he had done what he did to Emmanuel for nothing more than simple revenge? And because of a remark Rag had made in ignorance? That seemed such a base motive.

But considering what he had seen of Overkill, that didn't surprise him at all.

"Now," Raven said, "you know."

"But knowing is only half the battle," replied Buddy, drawing glares from the Odd Squad. He sweatdropped.

"Sorry. I'm just saying that we may know a weakness, but now we have to go implement it." One or two of the Titans absently noted that his use of the world _implement_ seemed incongruous with his hillbilly accent.

"Right," Robin said, rubbing his partially healed arm and ultimately only causing it to hurt worse. "The plan is simple; Raven weakens it with Trigon's seal, then we hit the demon with everything we've got until it goes down. Agreed?"

Featherweight walked over to the Teen Wonder and nodded. "Agreed, then," he said.

Robin turned to Raven and nodded. "Raven, it's your command."

Black energy surrounded the Titans and the Squad, and through the darkness, they heard her say: "TITANS, GO!"

**0000**

Far away in Metropolis, Guy Bridges was feeling fairly good. He had just gotten a new job at LexCorp, working for one of the most powerful—and most wealthy—men in the world. Directly. He had been assigned to be Mr. Luthor's assistant after he had recently been released from prison on parole, and was eager to get back to brown-nosing in hopes that he could get his already comfy salary raised…

Unfortunately, he did have some bad news, but hopefully Lex would not shoot the messenger…

The two white doors slid open in an almost Star-Trek-like fashion, and Guy entered Luthor's massive office, the small memo, which he really didn't need considering his steel-trap memory, almost wadded up and unreadable in his hand.

The owner of everything around him sat in a massive chair, studying a computer diligently.

"Mr. Luthor," he announced.

The former supervillain looked over towards him and smiled. "Mr. Bridges," he said, apparently pleased. Though Guy sensed his source of pleasure was something other than the visit.

"Sir, have you been monitoring the news?" Guy asked, immediately to the point. "There is a major metahuman altercation taking place in Miami. There is a danger…"

Lex looked annoyed, and pressed a button on his computer just as Guy arrived behind his desk. He only got a brief glimpse, but two images on his computer vanished; one was a dark-haired teen with brown eyes and a green visor strapped onto his face, and Guy thought he recognized him. A newer hero, from somewhere out west. The other image, if his eyes had seen right, had very similar facial features but a massive wad of spiky dirty yellow hair atop his head, and a nasty looking scar across his face… And something in his eyes had given Guy a feeling of dread and pause…

He looked over at Lex Luthor in a glance that basically said,_ what are you up to, boss?_

Luthor didn't respond, and instead took the crumpled memo from Guy's hand. He tried to read it, but after a few seconds frowned. "Superman himself couldn't read this," he said. "What is it?"

"One of the LexRail magnetic trains over Miami sir—it is full of passengers and it is heading through an area that might intersect with the area of the battle I mentioned."

Lex looked at the ground, thought a moment, and looked back up. "What heroes exactly are involved?

Guy smiled lightly, inside wondering why Lex hadn't asked for the name of the villain too. His smile, though, came from the pride that his memory continually imparted him, and he recited off the list (which he had only glanced at) perfectly except at one point.

"Rankarog?" Luthor asked. Then his eyes lit up slightly. "You must mean Ragnarök."

"I suppose, sir. Neither are words I'm familiar with."

"Well, it's no matter."

"Mercy told me to run this by you," Guy said. "I should I call the VP in charge of LexRail and tell him to get that train diverted?"

"No, no," Lex said. "Take no action at all. I have confidence in these heroes. My train is in good hands."

Guy's eyes widened somewhat in shock, but he nodded, because of a covert and sinister undercurrent in Luthor's voice… Again, the thought occurred; _what are you up to, boss?_

"Yes… sir…" he said weekly at length, and immediately began to leave the office.

"Guy," Luthor said, causing his assistant to freeze in place. Guy slowly turned around and observed a smirk on Luthor's face that made him somewhat sick to his stomach. "This conversation never happened. Understood?"

Guy nodded, and left.

**0000**

Overkill charged forward, the cops scattering as he swiped his massive flaming sword at them. He had picked up a claymore from the sword shop he had crashed into after all those space ships had hit him, and had turned it into a giant flaming demon blade.

His attack made contact with all the cars, immediately melting metal and shortly after igniting all their gas tanks, causing a series of explosions through the streets. Only one of the cops was actually grazed by the blade, but he had burst into flames and died much more slowly than he would have if the attack had been a solid strike, a fact which pleasured the demon greatly…

Suddenly, black energy appeared in front of him, and a familiar voice from inside echoed out, "TITANS, GO!"

Suddenly, the Odd Squad, Object, and the Titans burst from the shade, and Robin hit Overkill with a Bird-Grenade. Overkill got miffed and began to attack. But he was so furious, he wasn't paying attention and immediately got blocked by Rag who met the sword with a big mesa of earth and metal (something the demon certainly didn't expect).

Starfire blasted him away from Rag and Robin, and the last of the heroes—Raven--burst from the dark portal with a shout of, "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Black energy exploded from the girl's hands and slammed into Overkill's chest. The mighty destroyer staggered backwards, stepping on a car in the process.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and simultaneously opened his autocannon and sonic weapon up towards the demon, focusing wherever he could get a steady aim and leaving it there, even as Raven drew her symbol again.

Once the Mark of Scath appeared, the weakening effect was instant, and Overkill was blasted backwards by the combined force of all the groups' projectile attacks. Raven drew the symbol again, and the Titans and Squad repeated the process, everyone who was able to firing at the demon…

Overkill snarled as a Starbolt bounced of his head with no effect at all, and watched as Raven started to draw the symbol again. Then he forced his energy out, buffeting the seal she was drawing with a barrier of invisible power. Raven reacted with a slight gasp and increased the power, pushing harder on her seal as the monster tried to resist… Then she shifted her aim slightly and the symbol slammed into full existence on his forehead, just as one of Ragnarök's rocks struck there, lighting flashing as his helmet cracked. Other impacts slammed into the demon, driving him back but not doing any real damage…

And Raven was growing tired, Robin could see. She hadn't fully recovered from her earlier near-death experience.

Robin and Featherweight, who weren't fighting, (the former because he was nearly out of projectiles and the latter because he never carried any) looked at each other suddenly. "You don't think?" the older man asked…

Robin glanced over at Ragnarök and saw that his threat assessment visor was pulled down over his head but wasn't active, and darted over to him to assert his leadership for a moment.

"Rag, turn you threat visor on!" he shouted. "Energy analysis mode."

Rag hurled another rock and glanced at Robin. "I think we've already assessed that this guy is a BIG threat with a LOT of energy. And if I turn my visor on I divert power from moving earth. Speaking of that, I don't know how much I have left before my suit burns out."

"Just listen to me. Analyze the energy patterns the next time the volley after Raven draws her symbol."

"Aye, aye, captain," Ragnarok said bitterly, switching his visor on…

Raven drew the symbol, and the volley came again. This time a powerful blast of Snot Boy's goo hit the mark, and the reaction was immediate. As seen through Rag's visor, the place where the symbol fell became a void, as if the insignia drove all the other energy in the demon away from that one spot. And it suppressed his invisible aura entirely. Rag waited one more volley and noticed the overwhelming impact of Cyborg's sonic cannon when it slammed into the demon's shoulder, and disabled it for half a second just to ascertain that he was indeed seeing what he thought he was seeing:

Overkill's shoulder was _bleeding _from the impact…

"Robin, you're right. Tell them to attack the place where Raven draws the symbol…"

Robin ran into the middle of the fray, hurling a birdarang at the place where Raven drew the symbol this last time, causing sparks of pain. "Shoot the Mark of Scath!" Robin shouted. "Aim for it!"

The Titans complied, and Raven drew smaller marks to conserve energy, even as the Titans and squad all took Robin's advice and slammed their projectile weapons into everywhere the symbol appeared…

Chunks of Overkill's flesh and armor exploded from the impact sites of Starbolt, stone, blue Object, and sonic energy. Cyborg's autocannon was especially vicious, tearing swaths of flesh from inside the armor after the rest of the impacts.

Raven repeated the attack, this time on the demon's knee, and a huge divot had been blasted into it after the volley was over. Overkill was snarling and roaring in pain and frustration, and hurled a fireball at Raven even as she started to mark his head again…

Both attacks made contact, and Raven was barely able to shield herself at the last moment…

_**KRAKALOOM!**_

A combined Starbolt-credit card attack completely shattered Overkill's mask once more, revealing the face of Mathias Lancaster again, although now on a massive scale due to the demon's overall increase in size since the fight had begun…

The symbol on his forehead was glowing brighter than ever, and his black eyes were bloodshot. His face was stained with blood, tears, and some burns…

"We've killed enough, demon!" Mathias barked for all to hear. "Let it go for now!"

Whatever the demon's response was, it obviously wasn't anything Mathias wanted to hear; he gritted his teeth in anger; the tattoos on his face seemed to bulge, and get longer. "I know that!" Mathias yelled at the demon. "And I swear I'll stop it in any way I can!"

The Titans stared dumbly at the injured demon who refused to surrender…

"Guys, let's do the RASBABS," Ragnarök said at length

Robin shot a glare at him. "One, that takes time, two we kind of need Speedy here for that."

"It will end the fight," he said. "Tell the Squad and Object to give us some time. Raven, you can cast an arrow spell, right?"

"Ignoring the fact that I don't have any idea what the 'Razbabz' is," said Raven, "I'm not sure I can make an arrow spell immediately after I make the symbol…"

By this time Overkill had recovered, and the Odd Squad had charged forward to hold him off…

"Make it first, then," Rag said… "I think I read in like on of the Forgotten Realms books or something where you could pre-prepare a spell and fire it when you needed to…"

"Fiction, Rag!" Cyborg blurted.

"Even I know that not everything one reads in this thing you call a 'novel' can be trusted!" Starfire said.

Ragnarök grumbled, and formed a big drill out of rock and earth, and started spinning it. "They can't hold him off for ever, and if Mathias can't win against the demon, then we have no choice but to make the body unusable!"

As if to add weight to words, Snot Boy went flying over their heads screaming, "My foot, my spleen!"

Raven almost keeled forward as she knelt, and softly recited some words in another language, near the ground, drawing on the light reflecting off everything in the area that reflected light—drawing the energy directly from the sun could cause her attack to become too large and explode during formation…

And she formed it into the shape of a crossbow bolt…

"Fine, then it shall be the RASBBBS," Collin said, stumbling on the unpronounceable word.

Robin attached his final explosive disk to a recession in the middle of the drill, and Star and Cyborg prepared their attacks…

Raven hovered above them, and with one hand created the seal one last time. "_Thacsk nogirot_!"

The mark appeared on Overkill's chest this time, and it obviously did so much to his surprise—he hadn't been paying attention. Weakness shot through is body, then Ragnarok jumped on top of a wrecked car and, like an idiot, shouted, "**Ra**gnarok-**S**onic-**B**oom-**B**olt-**B**olt-**S**pecial… GO!"

The attack lanced out, spinning as it flew, and slammed into the weak spot on Overkill's solar plexus, digging in. Immediately Starfire and Cyborg blasted after the end of it, driving it farther through Overkill's armor, and Raven finally unleashed her bolt and collapsed to her hands and knees, breathing hard.

The bolt hit Robin's disk, causing it to explode. Chunks of armor and acrid-smelling smoke exploded from the demon's torso, and he flew backwards until he slammed into the column that held up a low overpass, and fell to his butt, his head slumping low. Overkill looked lifeless…

"MATHIAS!" shouted Myss Pryss, darting forward, followed quickly by the rest of the Odd Squad. The Titans followed them, approaching the body cautiously…

They gasped as the smoke cleared, because it became obvious that one could see right through him—there was a massive gory hole in the middle of Overkill's chest.

Myss Pryss let her head fall, saddened, and Featherweight placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Kristen," he said, "I know it hurts. But Mathias would have preferred this to living with that demon another day. You know that."

The woman grimaced, fighting back tears, forcing herself to remain stoic. "I… I just always really thought that we would rescue him from this," she said softly.

"We all did, MP," Buddy said with a grimace. He acted like he was going to say something else, but seemed to think better of it.

"Ghrrr.."

Eyes shot wide and hearts sank, even as Robin realized there might be someone in the area and put his back-up mask on…

Then he realized what everyone else had at first… the source of the grunt was not an observer or a survivor…

IT WAS OVERKILL!

Robin stared in shock and awe as the demon, massive hole through is chest, slowly came too, struggling to get to his feet… what was it doing? It was beaten, in its death throws. It should just surrender and—

Suddenly, Robin heard a sound coming from above, and he looked across the where the tip of Overkill's unbroken horn (his right one) met visually with the top of the overpass… And his eyes widened when he realized it wasn't a highway for cars, but for an elevated magnetic train!

**_CHOOM!_**

Unexpected force erupted from Overkill's aura, blasting Titan and NAAMC member alike several yards backwards, but a quick use of goo and hair by the youngest Odd Squad members saved anyone extra injury…

The concussive blast had destroyed the foundations of the buildings that framed Overkill's form, and the came tumbling down, their destruction empowering Overkill enough to push against the back of the bridge, forcing it to bend to his will…

The overpass broke with one final thrust backwards, and Overkill now stood in the direct path of the LexRail train…

"_Schlecht_." Johann said simply.

"_Sehr schlecht_." Robin replied grimly.

"Stop him before he derails the whole friggin train!" Cyborg yelled, running forward and blasting with both sonic cannons dialed up to full. Overkill staggered backwards, knocking over the rest of the overpass support, even as the train approached—and it was approaching at speeds resembling those of a Japanese bullet train…

Before anyone else could react, it was there, and Overkill grabbed the front car off the tracks and ripped it from the rest of the car, hurling people into the pile of debris from the collapsed buildings. Then forced the rest of the cars back with his other hand and fired a massive fireball through the train.

It tore through the cars, charring all the luggage, seats… and people… inside.

"NO!" Raven shouted. "ENOUGH!"

Her reaction was so fast, a fireball traveling at half the speed of sound only made it 100 yards before a massive wall of black energy sealed off the remainder of the last several train cars, preventing them from being charred. Raven could feel their terror and Cyborg's instruments could hear their screams as they were thrown forward in sudden stop…

Some had been saved…

But the damage had already been done.

Overkill gave a blood-curdling cry of victory as the wound in his chest filled up completely and all the holes in his armor vanished. He continued to absorb energy from the deaths of the train-riders, and placed the undamaged car on his shoulder, his energy converting into a massive bazooka…

The heroes stood, staring as Overkill took aim; there was only one rocket in the tube… But the size of the rocket indicated without a doubt he would only need one shot, and his eyes burned with a message that was visible through the mess of hair that had fallen over his face.

_This time_, they said, _I__am** not** going to miss!_

The demon pulled back on the bazooka's firing mechanism, and the rocket ignited, lancing forward. Time seemed to move in slow motion as Robin glanced over his shoulder in just enough time to see Ragnarök's suit finally flash once and then vanish. Collin looked excessively drowsy with it gone…

Then he looked over at Raven, who was collapsed on the concrete, clutching her chest and breathing hard. The Odd Squad stared immobile at the towering giant in front of them, apparently defeated psychologically. Object was nowhere to be seen, and a flash of memory informed Robin that he had been blasted into one of the buildings that Overkill had just got done collapsing..

Robin looked at his belt and found it empty, and to Cyborg, and found him completely motionless…

"No…" he whispered…

Suddenly, Starfire flew in from wherever the earlier concussion had blasted her to. She swooped down low so that the giant towered over her and pistoned both hands backward, then, unloaded a massive column Starbolt into the bottom lip of the bazooka, forcing it to arc upwards against the demon's will at the very last second. The rocket soared into the air, its demon-powered existence carrying it off into space…

When it finally exploded, it still lit up the sky in a massive red explosion…

The heroes realized that if it had hit the ground, it would have leveled the entire city, maybe half of Florida… Starfire had just saved millions of lives—lives that if snuffed out would have made Overkill like a god.

And after what she hand just done, Overkill was ANGRY.

A cry of rage far more dark and feral than any hero present had heard in their entire lifetime echoed loudly throughout the city, it was a miracle the eardrums of the Titans and Odd Squad didn't burst…

Starfire, now among the exhausted knelt on the ground, trying to regain her strength… Overkill snarled and smashed her into the pavement with the bazooka.

"KORI!" Robin shouted.

He brought the Bazooka up again and started to smash again, when it was suddenly intercepted by a massive blue hand. Robin traced it back to its source and saw Object, standing near the wreckage of the buildings. _Well, if it had protected him from a point-blank shotgun blast, surely it is reasonable it protected him from a falling building_, Robin observed…

Though how much he had been injured anyway remained to be seen—and his staggering gait gave some indication to this.

Nevertheless, as he walked forward, the hand clasped around the bazooka and actually _jerked_ it from Overkill's hand—it transformed back into the husk of a train car in mid air and slammed into a condemned building not far from the site of the battle…

Then Object collapsed to his knees and just sort of… stared at the ground, as if awaiting the end or something…

Overkill snarled and reached forward with his foot to step on Starfire—she was apparently still the target of his greatest rage… But this time Cyborg was jarred from his inaction and transformed both arms into sonic cannons, and opened fire on Overkill with everything they had, the sonic energy greater than the force it would require to move him. Overkill moved backwards a few yards, and Cyborg's arms reverted. He opened his chest cavity and removed a small glowing red device.

"I didn't wanna use this!" Cyborg shouted. Robin forced his weary eyes to focus and realized it was a Zynothium core, a kind of mini-reactor with an immense power output. Robin knew because he considered installing one in his Red X suit before going with the safer and more portable 'battery' method. For Cyborg to have brought one meant he had anticipated the fight getting out of control—and perhaps that he was even prepared to detonate himself to stop the demon!

The center cavity in Cyborg's chest opened and he snapped the core into place, and then fired his sonic canons, again, sending Overkill back even farther. Then Cyborg diffused the sound and continued firing. At this intensity the sound would have sheered the skin of the average human, but Overkill didn't even flinch. He stepped forward, moving against the flow of sound, and Robin was completely unable to believe that he could struggle against it…

Step by step, Overkill inched closer to the Titans, fighting against Cyborg's diffused sound. Cyborg tried focusing it again, but this time Overkill was ready and the impacts glanced off of him, as if nothing.

Cyborg grimaced; sweat began pouring down the organic parts of his face, even as the demon moved inexorably closer, repelling his Zynothium-powered sonic cannons as if they were nothing, and Robin thought he heard them clicking, as if about to stop working..

"YOU AIN'T GETTIN' ANY CLOSER!" Cyborg pushed his meter to 100 percent and beyond, hoping with all he had left to somehow stop the demon… But the demon just asserted his power, forcing Cyborg to curse his own weakness… he couldn't do it. He couldn't drive the devil back!

Suddenly, Robin became aware that the clicking wasn't coming from the cannons… it sounded like horse hooves… And it was coming from _behind him!_

Robin whirled around to see a massive green racehorse darting towards the battle, something hanging from its mouth. Beast Boy. He arrived even as Cyborg took a step back from the advancing demon, and then collapsed on the ground, the a small square object falling from his person and tumbling to a stop next to Cyborg's back foot.

"Dudes, I am so exhausted!" he blurted. "But… _I_ have to do this! None of you are in the shape for it." Beast Boy climbed off his belly and picked up the jewel case, which Robin realized was a CD holder…

"What are you doing?" Robin blurted—"How did you expect to play that thing? And what is it?"

"I was gonna grab the stereo from the room but then I saw the T-Ship and knew Cyborg must have been here," Gar answered, then he tossed Robin the CD case, and Robin read it.

"Collin's _Worship Tunes _disk?" Robin asked, the utter incredulity in his voice surprising even him.

"Trust me!" Gar blurted. "It will work." He removed a screwdriver from Cyborg's leg and then used it to open a slot on his back, revealing a disc-reading system.

"Hey! What are you doing back there you little grass stain?" Cyborg blurted, wishing he was machine enough to turn his head all the way around to chastise Beast Boy.

"Dude, don't question me, just play track seven. It's our only hope!"

"What? Gar, you gotta be kidding me!"

"No joke, just do it, I know it will work!"

"Fine." Muttering, Vic turned around and rerouted the sonic cannon sound source to the CD player, then charged both of them up with his Zynothium core. He eyed the demon in front of him. "Yeah, you'd better run!" He barked. "Because now you're gonna feel the wrath of… TRACK SEVEN!" Then he quietly muttered, "Whatever that is…"

The sound waves exploded from Cyborg's cannon, bathing the demon in their beats and lyrics:

_Na na na na na na na NANANANANA  
Na na na na NANANANA na na_

_Na na na na na na na NANANANANA  
Na na na na NANANANA na na_

_God is great; God is good! God rocks my socks!_

_  
Praise the Lord  
EVERYBODY!_

_Praise the Lord_

_EVERYBODY!_

_You rock my socks, Lord…!_

The song continued on… and everyone there allowed their jaws to hit the floor (assuming that they weren't already there) when smoke began to rise from Overkill's armor, the demon energy-infused liquid-polymer bubbling as the Cyborg blasted it with the song.

"Holy glomp," Rag whispered. Then he shouted, "It's actually working!"

"My brain… it breaks…" muttered Snot Boy. "How…"

"Stop it!" shouted Myss Pryss. "You're going to kill him!

"No, Cyborg, keep going. If it doesn't take him out, he takes us out," Gar reminded, standing beside the big mechanical teen…

Overkill screamed out as the music washed over him; cracks on his black claws formed, and a red light emanated from them. The demon raised his hands, up, trying to move them out of the field of the sound, but before he could, the claws exploded into a burst of red light; blood seeped from his fingertips…

The expression on Overkill's face grew more pained, as he struggled to keep a level head through it all… and suddenly as the eyes dilated, more cracks formed, this time on his enormous horns…

And as the music didn't stop, the cracks spread until the horns too exploded off his head.

"Keep it up, Cyborg!" shouted Object.

Realizing the song was almost over, Cyborg looped it back to the bridge instantly, and increased the volume as high as he could get it…

Again, Overkill was forced back, and now the smoke was pouring off of him even as the polymer suit began to melt… Pain wracked his features…

And finally, the demonic symbol on his forehead started flashing, more and more erratically, until it stopped glowing entirely. As soon as it had, Mathias reached out and figuratively grabbed hold of the vocal cords of the monster.

"**Gone once more, my soul to till, until next summoned, OVERKILL!**"

Overkill flashed red, then began to shrink, the melting armor turning into a simple black jacket, black shirt, and black pants. His hair faded from silver with streaks of black to a mane of jet-black locks, and the pale cadaver-like visage flushed with humanity, his eyes going from black pits to normal white eyeballs with deep brown irises.

"Turn your cannon off!" Myss Pryss said. "He's reverted to himself…"

"Do what she says," agreed Robin. Cyborg gave him an apprehensive look and then turned off the cannons. Just as he did, the red glow around Mathias faded, and he fell to the ground, shaken, shivering.

"Mathias!" shouted Myss Pryss again. The entire group of heroes approached cautiously, but she ran towards him; obviously whoever he was before being bonded to the demon was a person very dear to the dichotomous heroine.

But Mathias quickly reached into his jacket and when he pulled his hand out again, he was armed with a Forty-Five-caliber revolver. Robin gasped, reached for a birdarang, and then grunted when he realized that he didn't have one…

"Stay back!" Shouted Mathias, clearly distraught.

"Mathias…" Myss Pryss stopped running and took a single slow step forward. "Put the gun down.. I want to help you.. I want to get that thing out of you…"

"He won't allow it!" Mathias said, fighting back a sob. "If I go with you he'll torment me, consume my soul… Or he'll force my hand to kill you. Maybe both. He's weakened now, but not destroyed… Just let me go…"

"I can't do that!" she shouted back at him… "I can't—" She took a step forward, but stopped suddenly when Mathias cocked the hammer back and aimed the gun directly at her knee.

"LET ME GO!" Mathias shouted, a command rather than a request. "I won't let him kill you, Kristen, or anyone else. You can't help me. He's just too strong."

"Mathias…"

"I'm not going to ask you to kill me," he said. "You wouldn't do it, and Overkill wouldn't let his precious physical body to come to harm… So I'm just going to walk away, go somewhere else, go somewhere… go somewhere… somewhere…"

He stood up, dropped the gun, and the immediately turned and ran the other direction, down the road away from the Titans and Odd Squad…

At seventy miles an hour.

"How the—" Beast Boy blurted…

"That's impossible!" Robin said. He saw that anyone capable of catching up to him was almost too exhausted to move, so he could do nothing but stare as the policeman with a demon bonded to him vanished from his line of sight.

"I guess," said Snot Boy, "That we sort of forgot to mention that he retains his enhanced speed even without being transformed."

"It's okay," Raven said, now beside Robin. She had Starfire, who looked awful, bracing her up. Star was smiling weakly, but not talking. Raven let go and Star collapsed onto Robin, and he held her up (not an easy task considering she was taller than he was).

"Tim…" she whispered. That was all the words between them.

"Soooo, " Beast Boy started, stepping up very close to Raven. Some would say dangerously close, given their past… incidents. "You think that little stunt would have worked against your dad?"

Raven sweatdropped. "Um… Trigon is a different kind of demon, Garfield."

"Oh."

"That was so AWESOME!" Object blurted, running over from where he had been standing. He turned to the dejected Collin, and patted him on the back. "Happy Birthday!"

"My birthday is not till January," Collin said with a frown.

Object looked at him sadly. "I know, I was just trying ta' cheer you up. We won!" Then he turned to Beast Boy. "How did you know that would work?"

"Remember when Superman got sent to the future by that Toydude and everyone thought he was dead? Well, Steve and Rita—I mean Mento and Elastigirl—took me to the funeral, and there I noticed that while we were in the church, Blue Devil's skin kept burning and smoking, even though he was a good devil. So I figured it would work a lot bigger on a bad devil. Overkill was too big to get into a church, so I brought Ragnarök's CD. I did have a priest I ran into by chance bless it on the way over, though."

"Wasn't my CD destroyed with the car?" asked Ragnarok weakly and with a sheepish grin.

"No," Beast Boy said. "I remembered putting it in the Robin's suitcase when we unpacked the luggage at the hotel, which is what took me so long—I forgot which room was ours and that clerk was really a major jerk cause I was like—"

"WE GET IT, Beast Boy," Robin said, not caring to hear anymore of his story. "I.. I just wish we could have saved more…"

"It was worse last time," Rag said. "A lot worse—"

"That's not good enough. We were here, we should have done more…"

"Robin," said Raven, "We really did all we could.. Most of us are about dead from sheer exertion. We're not gods—we're not even Superman."

"This really looks like a job for the big man in blue.," Featherweight remarked. "But they are right. Considering that half the state could have been vaporized by that bloody big rocket…"

Robin didn't reply, he just stared at Starfire in his arms, and at the wound on her foot that had apparently been reopened when Overkill hit her with his bazooka. How many… How many had died that day? How many more could he have saved by being better? By being stronger, faster, more like… More like…

More like Bruce. More like the Batman.

The question echoed in his mind, even as disaster relief began to arrive. And he began to wonder if Oz hadn't been right about his team.

0000

Just as things tend to go for the meta-human crime fighting crowed, the Titans spent half their vacation helping out around the clean up of the city, and went home early, exhausted. Ragnarok did what healing he could with the White Catalyst once they got home, but his suit was still not fully recharged, so he couldn't do everything the Titans needed.

Starfire was getting used to her injury, which by it's nature would never fully heal. At least she could always wear her boot over it to cover it up. It still hurt her even after Rag had done all he could, though not nearly as bad as at first. She definitely exercised her proverbial flying muscles a lot over the next few days.

What little time they had to spend watching TV didn't do much more than anger Robin and put him in even a worse mood than before.

"_The teenage heroes from the west coast who call themselves the Teen Titans went home today after spending the last few days cleaning up the disastrous battle in Miami, Florida that resulted in the destruction of most of Dodge Island last week."_

Robin grimaced at the news report. "Of course, she makes it sound like the Titans are responsible for the entire battle. No mention at all over Overkill."

_"Officials say the local superhero group known as the Odd Squad helped them out, including the sometimes member called the Object. Both Odd Squad and Object are members of a larger organization called the North American Association of Metahuman Crimefighters, which has not yet issued an official statement regarding the battle or 'Overkill', the supervillain allegedly responsible for the swath of destruction, which, the latest reports state, claimed the lives of seventy-seven and inured more than three hundred."_

Even Beast Boy saw the spin on that one. "_'ALLEGEDLY!_'" he blurted. "Dude, you've got to be kidding me!"

"Seventy-Seven…" Robin repeated.

"_Meanwhile,"__the reporter continued, "Founder and CEO of LexCorp, Lex Luthor, has issued a statement declaring that he will not file suit for damages on the train lost by subsidiary LexRail Transportation on the grounds that the supervillain, not the heroes involved, are to blame for the destruction. Nevertheless, he did mention that he had questions regarding the capability of the Titans, calling them 'mere children', as well as the two youngest members of the Odd Squad, also teens."_

"Typical Luthor," Raven said. "He issues a statement saying exactly what _nobody _is thinking—that we are responsible for the deaths…"

"Seventy-Seven…"

"_In a related story, Lex Luthor's personal assistant Guy Bridges was found dead in his apartment on Sunday, apparently having committed suicide shortly after learning of the LexRail tragedy, in which nearly fifty passengers were killed. A legal pad was found near Bridges' body with the words 'should have warned them, should have stopped them' scribbled on it. When asked for his take on the suicide, Luthor himself declined to comment until after the funeral, which is scheduled for this Friday."_

"How much you wanna bet Luthor told them to let that train go in there just to have an excuse to criticize superheroes?" asked Cyborg. "Not like it's going to hurt him financially, seeing as how he's more loaded than Bill Gates."

Robin frowned. "Luthor is arrogant, petty, sometimes sadistic, and obsessive in the extreme; but it doesn't seem like he would take a risk like that one without something specific in mind."

"You think he has his eye on Miami, or the Squad?" Ragnarok asked with a yawn (of exhaustion, not boredom.)

Robin nodded solemnly. Then, a horribly thought occurred to him, and he simply said:

."….Or _us._"

The Titans sat in silence as the implications of that statement sank in. After a while, muted conversations opened up about the Tower again.

"Um…" Cyborg said, just as a noticeable rumbling began to shake the room. "Any of you guys hear that?"

"It sounds like someone is landing a Javelin on the roof," Robin said.

"Shall we look to ascertain the source of this untimely disturbance?" asked Starfire.

"Yeah…" Gar looked at her. "What she said."

The Titans quickly ran to the roof, and were surprised to see a ship hovering above it about fifteen feet. But it was not a Javelin or any other JLU affiliated craft.

"What the…"

Suddenly, a figure appeared and the Titans felt as they were staring up at Superman. But this man wore no blue, and no gold. His hair was not black, and his disguise was not the lack of glasses. And the letter on his chest was not an S, but a massive dark 'A'…

"Hello, there," Atomic Man said.

He hovered down to where he stood on the roof, looking just as Ragnarok had described him, though Rag hadn't mentioned the big red cape. "You are Atomic Man," Robin said. "It is nice to meet you sir."

"Glad to meet you too, son," he said in a very bombastic manner, extending a hand to Robin. _What a dork¸_ Robin thought.

Robin and Atomic Man shook hands, and then the former asked, "So, what brings you here."

"Well," he said, dropping the bombast, "I was away in another dimension trying to keep a war from breaking out between the color Orange and the Treble Clef, so I wasn't able to help out. Featherweight told me about what happened, and how you blew up your ship in the fight, so my partner in anti-crime 8-Ball and I built you this baby…"

All the Titans' heads immediately jerked to the left, and they goggled. Jaws hit the floor.

This new ship was _nice. _A copper color with a smooth reflective surface, the ship was the very definition of _sleek_, and might also be found in the dictionary beside _angular_. Certainly a far cry from the gaudy orange thing they used to use.

"It's not as good as his own," Atomic Man laughed, but it will do. Third-grade Hyperdrive, deep space and deep sea capable. It is just our way of saying thank you from the NAAMC."

"This is the most beautiful thing I have EVER SEEN!" Cyborg shouted, as tears welled up in his eyes. Robin sweatdropped when he noticed that Vic was hugging the machine and drooling.

"Thank you," Robin said, waving as Atomic Man flew off. He glanced over at Starfire, who waved as he left, and smiled. Maybe things would be alright…

Maybe…

* * *

**Disclaimer**: In the event of an actual attack by the physical embodiment of a demon, Chaltab, Chaltabium Bromide Industries, and all affiliates disclaim any and all liablity for any injury or death resulting in the attempted use of music to fight the demon. In the event of an actual demon attack, the surgeon general has said that your best options are to pray, run, or run while praying. If you are not the type to pray, then you will have to run like mad, or, alternatively, haul arse. 


	18. Yin: What Doesn't Kill You

Author's Note: _The 'new' character Davis was created by me. If you claim his as your own, I will unleash Delirium on you and he will perform unspeakable atrocities. If you want to use him, just ask._

**

* * *

Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Eighteen - Yin: What Doesn't Kill You**

_It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are a single male in possession of metahuman powers, you must use your metahuman powers for good or for evil. I contend that many metahumans would actually prefer if this wasn't the case. Just because I can vaporize you with my vision doesn't mean I should need to use it in that way. I needn't use it at all, except maybe to nuke my hot pockets when the microwave is broken. Why should I have to put my life on the line to commit or stop crimes just because I have powers most people don't? What if I want to live a normal life? And hey, if science or biology has decided I get some nice perks, why not?_

…

…

"For some reason," Davis said aloud after finishing the first paragraph of his essay, "I don't believe a word of what I'm typing."

"Well, dear," said his adoptive mother Helen Parsons, "maybe you should write an essay about something you do believe in." She bent over to look at the screen, and her auburn hair fell to frame her face.

"I tried that too, and it felt all jingoistic," the blond teen said as he turned away from the computer in his room and flopped down on the bed. "My teacher is an avowed communist anyway." After a beat, Davis amended, "Well, that is an exaggeration, but she is definitely too left-wing to function."

Outside his sparsely decorated bedroom, Davis heard the voice of his adoptive father, Samuel, calling in. "Since when do you care that much about politics?"

"He has a point, dear," his mother said.

"Normally I don't," Davis replied. "But Ms. Raines shoves her views down your throat whether you want to hear it or not. I'm just glad we got today and yesterday off for Halloween. I can't stand the woman."

Helen shook her head. "Oh dear. Well, if this essay is giving you such a fuss, why don't you take a break for a while. Your karate class starts in an hour and you need to eat before you go."

Davis frowned and got up. "Right. Just one more thing on the list of stuff to do."

"Nobody said life was easy, son."

"Not helping, Mom." Davis reached into the closet and pulled out his gi, then threw it over his shoulder. "If I screw up this essay, I don't pass the class. I repeat freshman English."

"I'm aware of that, son. You'll do fine. You're smarter than you give yourself credit for."

Davis had his face turned away, but he winced so hard he was afraid his mom would _hear_ it. If she had known the _reason, _he wanted to take karate, then she would probably blow a gasket or have a cow or some other odd metaphor that Davis would never understand. "Yeah, Mom. Keep on building me up. But you're going to have to pick up the pieces when I fall."

**

* * *

**

Eighty minutes later, Davis stood across the room from his karate instructor. Sensei Patrick Michaels, upon learning of Davis' metahuman talent, had arranged to have a special one-on-one session with him every Friday night. He had come early today because the Sensei wanted to go trick-or-treating with his kids.

The metahuman talent Davis possessed wasn't exactly unique. The ability to stretch one's body like rubber was shared by at least three well known heroes—the Justice League members Elongated Man and Plastic Man, and Rubber Band Man of the Teen Titans North.

But it was still rarer than super strength or heat vision, and Davis was the youngest subject that he knew of with such an ability, which made him an interesting case study.

"Have you gone through the Seisan kata?" asked his instructor.

"I was just about to…"

"Good. Your form could use some work, from what I saw last time, but you were getting the basic motions down fairly well."

"Thanks," Davis said. "So… have you determined what effects my powers would have on the science stuff behind the karate?"

"Well," Sensei said, "most pressure points are designed to inhibit or enhance the flow of chi, not disrupt physical functions. But as far as those are concerned, your abilities give you a double edge sword. You can probably take most blunt impacts with ease. But if someone has a sharp blade, stretching will make you more vulnerable."

"You are thinking worst case scenario?"

"I'm thinking that if you really want to learn karate, you'll learn to prepare yourself for _any_ scenario. Now, perform Seisan kata."

"_Hai_," Davis said for no real reason—after all, Sensei Michaels wasn't even remotely Japanese. He'd have to figure out why he did that someday.

Just as Davis began to perform the kata, though, the building began to rumble…

"Oh no.. An Earthquake.."

Sensei shook his head. "This far north? I'm not sure…"

Outside, the sky suddenly dimmed, and Davis quickly ran to the window, looking out towards Jump City, looking south down the coast. Everything had become strangely, dark—the sun was eclipsed!

"What the frell is going on?" he asked himself aloud.

Sensei Michael's scanned the sky and pointed out towards a red spot hovering above in the clouds… "What is that?"

Davis squinted, and used his powers to stretch his corneas, trying to focus like a telescope. No dice, it still just looked like a floating red light in the sky…

Suddenly, the ground rumbled again, and a massive column of light shot out from the city… "Oh my…"

"Davis!" shouted Sensei, "get down!"

Sensei dived over the drywall divider wall, and Davis stretched his legs out long to step over it, and hid behind it… His final glance back told him that there was a giant red figure with huge horns standing in the middle of the city, right where the column of light had been…

He stared at it in horror, even as a wave of orange-red light washed out from the beast and began consuming the city… He jumped back, forcing his hands to stretch out in front of his face in a vain attempt to shield himself…

And as the energy the passed over his limbs, his last thoughts were… _My hands are turning to stone…! _Then everything went black…

**

* * *

**

_Three Weeks Later…_

Davis slowly walked up the stairs, dreading his English class. Ms. Raines had fallen into ill health after the day Trigon took over the world for those hours, and was now out of his hair… but the teacher they had gotten to replace her was worse. Completely incompetent, Ms. Garrison couldn't control the class at all, so each class was a lesson in frustration.

As Davis entered the classroom, a book lanced out from the side of his field of vision and slammed into his face and bouncing off even as a second one struck him in the stomach and caved it in, his stretching ability preventing any significant pain. Still, the second book lodged into his abdomen, and its shape protruded from his back slightly… Crud.

"Hey, freak!" shouted Tyler Morgan across the room. "Nice decoration there."

"Tyler," said Ms. Garrison helplessly, "please sit down and quit making fun of Mr. Jefferson."

Tyler sat down, but still glared at Davis. Davis removed the book from his stomach and let his body return to normal. "Thanks a lot," he said. He had been afraid of this, actually. The previous day he had been, he thought, alone in the dressing room after PE, and noticed he'd left his shoes on a bench more than an arms length away. So he had stretched to grab them, thinking the room was empty.

Just then, Tyler had come out of the shower and quickly finished dressing and left in a hurry. It was the last period of the day, so Davis had gone home, simply hoping that he hadn't been discovered. It seemed that this was not the case.

As he took his seat, Travis Morgan, (no relation to Tyler) gave him a word of encouragement even as Jason and Jarrod Morgan (no relation to each other, Travis, or Tyler… yes, it IS weird, I know) sat in the back corners of the room trading insulting jokes about Davis' metahuman talent.

After taking attendance, Ms. Garrison began talking about respecting other people's feelings, a pedantic, moralizing, and poorly delivered speech that Davis did not want to hear, even if she was defending him. It was said that Garrison couldn't convince a bee to sting, and with at least three in the class dead set on making his newly-discovered metahuman status the talk (and joke) of the school.

"I hate people," Davis muttered to himself.

"Dude, they're really just jealous," Travis said. "_I'm_ jealous. Even if your power isn't exactly the coolest."

"Thank you, Mr. Helpful," said Davis, getting out a notebook and reading some contents from it.

"Sorry. So, you gonna go become a Titan or something?"

"There are metahumans that don't actually use their powers, you know. Mine don't really make me invulnerable."

"Right… But Robin doesn't even have powers. So you could probably take him down, right?"

Davis shook his head. "Somehow, Trav, I seriously doubt it."

**

* * *

**

That night, after complaining to his parents about the events of the day and securing a promise they would talk to the principal regarding the discovery that he was a meta, Davis turned on the TV. It was said that the Titans were giving a very rare press conference today regarding the battle in Miami of the previous week, and Davis wanted to hear every word of it… He had long admired the Titans for what they had done for the city, and to be perfectly honest felt more than a bit guilty that he wasn't doing anything with his own power.

When the conference came on, Davis immediately noticed something was odd. Robin was not at the speaker podium as normal, but instead Cyborg was. Robin was sitting behind him with the rest of the Titans…

"_Mr. Cyborg," a news reporter asked, "can you please give us the details of the fight from a more first-hand perspective?"_

"_Well," said the half-machine teen, "there wasn't a whole lot to it. We had fought another villain earlier that day, who was sort of crazy. Some local talent helped us out and we were grabbing a bite to eat when another of the local heroes came in and said that Overkill was attacking."_

_"And who is this Overkill exactly?" a CNN reporter asked._

"_Um, well, he used to be a cop," Cyborg said, drawing murmurs from the crowed. "But he got possessed by a demon and changed."_

_"Does this mean that the Titans are affirming the reported existence of demons?" asked another reporter._

"What?" Davis blurted, his eyes widening. "That massive red four-eyed thing that attacked the city three weeks ago isn't proof enough for you?"

"The TV can't talk back, dear," Davis' mother said, joining him on the couch.

"_Well…" Cyborg said, glancing back at Raven, whose hooded cloak enshrouded her face and figure in a strange almost preternatural darkness. "We never really thought that was much of a question anymore…"_

_"So that's a yes?" _

Yin rolled his eyes.

"What do you expect from the media, dear?" his mother asked him.

"Would intelligent questions be too much?" he responded.

_A Fox News reporter asked Cyborg to give the details of the battle, and Cyborg spent a few minutes telling what happened, trying to tell the story around the facts of the seventy-seven killed in the fight, and mentioning that Starfire, the alien that ought to be a supermodel, had been seriously injured._

"_What is the nature of the injury?"_

_Starfire hovered over and whispered something in Cyborg's ear, and then went back to her seat. Cyborg then said, "She says she doesn't want to disclose the nature of the injury at the moment."_

"_Mr. Cyborg," started a new reporter, this one from a local station, "What is your response to Lex Luthor's statement the other day questioning your abilities to stop such attacks in the future."_

_Cyborg grimaced, but his organic eye lit up as if he had been hoping the question would be asked. Or maybe just expecting it. "Well… Actually, I haven't read the whole statement, I just heard about him calling us kids or something."_

_The reporter looked at the note pad in her hand, and read the quotation. "He said, quote, 'I'm not going to press charges. After all, it wasn't the heroes' fault the fight took place. But I do question—as any reasonable man would—the wisdom of throwing mere children into a fight that clearly should have been handled by someone of a more… shall we say… professional status…' unquote."_

Davis' mother shook his head. "Such a horrible man, Luthor. I don't believe for one minute he's really reformed. He's trying to make the Titans look bad."

"Nobody in their right mind believes it," Davis said, mostly exaggerating. The unfortunate truth was that too many really did believe it. Maybe that many people were really just out of their minds.

_Cyborg answered the question with a grin. "Well," he said. "I say that if Mr. Luthor thinks he can do a better job, he should feel free. He says he's the smartest man on the planet. So let him prove it! We risked our lives and nearly lost them down there in a town that wasn't even our responsibility... And thanks to Raven's actions, the massacre on _his_ train was much smaller than it coulda been."_

"Durn straight," Davis said. He examined the screen and watched the Titans that were not speaking for a while. Something seemed odd about Cyborg speaking, and Robin's demeanor was more than a little unusual. He seemed distant. "Mom, why do you think Robin's not giving this conference?"

His mother said that she had no idea.

"Well crud," Davis responded.

**

* * *

**

A few days later, it was Friday night. And Davis had decided he was finally ready. He and Sensei Michaels had been training hard for weeks, and he had been practicing his metahuman talents by himself, making sure he knew exactly which muscles stretched in which directions and which ones he would have to flex and relax to get a speedy retraction.

"It is okay," he told himself. "You can do this, Davis. You'll be fine."

He was really scared out of his mind, but he also wasn't a coward. And the fact he had powers and wasn't using them already was driving him towards the aforementioned condition of insanity anyway. He'd watched Spider-man on BluRay one too many times to forget that 'with great power comes great responsibility.'

Dressing in a black 'hoodie' sweatshirt with a Yin-Yang symbol on it and a pair of black jeans, Davis held his stringy elastic hair back with a headband and pulled the hood up over the loose sweatshirt. It was rather chilly out, but Davis still needed his clothing lose enough that he wouldn't get tangled up in them trying to stretch.

What he was doing was probably stupid, but he found himself inexorably drawn towards doing it—a feeling that if he didn't help, he was being selfish. And Davis hated nothing more than feeling selfish. As he climbed out his bedroom window, he muttered, "Curse you, Uncle Ben."

**

* * *

**

By 3AM the caffeine in Davis' system was running low. He stretched to give him some height and stretched his masseters to add a bit of age (as he was definitely violating the 10PM curfew on minors) and entered a convenience store, grabbing a Red Bull and guzzling it with unhealthy speed.

As he came out, he noticed what he thought might be a break… An old black van with its lights off pulled into the alley behind a building across the street, the van parking so that the view of the alley would be blocked if anyone drove by.

Not a good sign… To make it worse, Davis thought he remembered that the store across the street was a jewelry store. "Definitely better check this out," he said aloud, mostly because… he read way too many comics. Those, he mused, always left out the fact that night patrols were, from his experience, extremely boring affairs unless something was happening.

He should have just gone on home, but he felt compelled to check it out. So he stretched to the top of the building an moved stealthily as possible into a position on top of the fire escape into the ally, which was also black and mostly shadowed, giving him a good deal of concealment…

Davis slithered down the stairs of the fire escape, trying to be as quiet as possible, and then stretched his ear into a cup shape in order to hear the scene better.

The group that had gotten out of the van consisted of four very large men and another guy who had the muscle definition of the Hulk but in a smaller wiry build. Davis was briefly thankful for the fact that he was mostly immune to blunt impacts, because he was certain those guys could dish them out. Unfortunately he also noticed that they all had handguns on their persons, either in-hand or in a holster, and that the small man had a crowbar.

The spoke to each other, discussing the objectives of breaking in and stealing the jewels inside; they all spoke with very light Cajun accents. "Open the door," said one of them.

"Isn't there a silent alarm?" asked another.

"Don't matter," said a third. "We'll be in and out long before the police show up. Grab the jewels and leave, get only what you can hold in your hands and pockets. An' don't waste no time."

"On it, boss man," the smaller man said. He bashed at the doorknob with a crowbar a couple of times, until it fell off, and then undid the latch with his gloved fingers. The door came open, and the robbers rushed in two by two by one, and Davis heard glass breaking inside.

He climbed on down the fire escape and got into position, waiting for the men to come out. Davis said a prayer and hoped he was heard. The men came out of the building far too soon for Davis' tastes, and he suddenly found that he had to act now or never.

Davis quickly stretched his face into the shape of a megaphone and shouted, "STOP WHERE YOU ARE!" He hoped he had modulated his voice enough to give it some credibility.

Everyone immediately froze and turned to the fire escape where Davis was perched. Which was a mistake, as the first one to reach for his gun got hit in the face immediately by two stretch-arm punches.

Davis grabbed him by the shirt and reeled himself forward, and punched the guy in the face again, and dodged a series of blows from him and another thug by stretching and compressing his body to avoid them.

He heard the safety on a gun behind him click and immediately stretched his legs upwards as fast as he could, gaining enough height that the bullet whizzed between his legs. Then he bent over backwards and fell to the ground behind the man. The criminal whirled around and swung with his fist, but Davis had collapsed into a ball on the ground in front of him, and then sprang forward at an angle, legs first, and kicked the man in the chest with both feet, sending him flying backwards; the man cursed loudly when he slammed into the and dashed his skull against the brick.

"Sloppy," he chided himself.

The smallest man, not risking drawing his gun, took the crowbar he was already holding and swung it at Davis, striking him in the face. The blow stung a bit, but didn't do any damage, and Davis retaliated with a punch to the solar plexus that felt like he was striking a brick wall.

Seeing another man go for his gun in his peripheral vision, Davis bounded up again, but this time the man got some good shots at him as he flew, the accused Yin-Yang symbol on his chest like a target in the dark night sky. "Eat zhe hot lead, k_ii_d!"

Davis fell on the man more than tackled him, and wrestled until his limbs were wrapped around the brute, then began trying to suffocate him. But it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to work. Even with the teen's super power, the man had a much higher degree of physical strength and kept forcing Davis off any repertory systems he tried to shut down.

Then the skinny man pulled out his gun. "You gonna fry, punk!" He opened fire at Davis, still wrapped around his own partner. The huge man's massive body stopped the bullets from going all the way through, and Davis bounded off him in horrified shock even as he collapsed dead. But shock quickly turned to survival instinct when the smaller man turned his gun on the airborne Davis. Davis stretched out an arm and swung down at the man like Spiderman, amazingly not being hit by any of the bullets.

He slammed into the small man feet first, this time actually knocking the extremely muscular criminal backwards onto his rear, and kicking the gun from his hand. That was four down…

Suddenly, an ice cold sensation shot through Davis' torso and pain wracked his body. He looked down to see a knife sticking out of his side, and followed the arm up to the man earlier identified as the 'boss man', a dark fellow with an eye patch on his left eye, an evil look in his right, and a graying mustache. "You sure can take a blow, kid, but I still bet you bleed like a man when you get stuck."

He pushed the knife forward, making the wound wider, even as Davis collapsed, the pain agonizing, preventing him from moving. The boss man spoke no more, and demanded that the three thugs that still remained alive get up and get in the van…

… Then Davis blacked out.

**

* * *

**

"If we want to catch them we have to be there now!" Robin shouted.

"Fine, fine!" Raven said. "Not like was just randomly awakened at 3:30 in the morning. Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!"

Darkness consumed them and in a minute they were in the middle of the street, right in front of a moving van. "Titans, Go!" Robin ordered.

Starfire and Cyborg charged, and Star tore the roof off of the vehicle, even as Cyborg stopped it dead with a massive punch to the engine. Raven's eyes widened and she flew off into the alley, and the thugs—the Louisiana Lobos, which the Titans had been tracking for the past few days—attacked them.

A group of half-Cajun half-Mestizo jewel thieves, the Louisiana Lobos had been hitting stores on the West Coast for the past month after being forced out of New Orleans by the new mayor King Faraday. They had to learn one important thing.

"In Jump City," Robin shouted, vaulting off his bo-staff and kicking the boss man in the stomach, "crime doesn't pay."

Beast Boy tackled the smaller man as a Bengal tiger, and Starfire and Cyborg easily dispatched the other two…

As the Titans piled up the four, Robin asked, "Where is Raven?

"Guys!" Raven's voice suddenly shouted from inside the alley. "Get over here!"

Robin was only half way in when he saw the figure lying face down in the asphalt. "Oh no…"

Beast Boy's eyes moistened and widened… "Is he…?"

"He's alive, but fading. I need to concentrate," responded Raven.

"Oh, please," Kori said, "I hope that we are not too late…"

"What's going on guys?" Cyborg asked, finally approaching the scene. He then saw the young teen lying on the ground, and put his head down, but said nothing…

**

* * *

**

Davis felt his eyes open, but they were heavy as if he were still sleepy. However, when he did get them open, he found himself staring into the violate eyes of the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

"Whoa! An angel with blue hair. God really does have a sense of humor!" Davis exclaimed.

The angel smiled wryly, apparently suppressing a laugh. "I'm not an angel," she confessed.

For a beat, Davis considered the implications of this statement. "Shit."

"What?"

"That must mean I'm in the other place."

Though the woman didn't deny being a demon, she still shook her head. "You're not dead. Can you sit up?" Her voice wasn't unsympathetic, but she gave the air of someone who wasn't used to showing concern…

"I… I think so…" Davis' head stopped spinning as he sat up, and looked closer at the 'angel' to realize that she indeed was not one at all… It was Raven… of the Teen Titans!

"Oh… I'm sorry, Rav... Ms. Raven…" Davis blurted.

"For what?"

"…I don't know…"

"Hello, spiky blond haired new acquaintance!" a cheerful voice came from behind. "I hope that you are feeling better!"

Davis twisted his head around got scared out of his wits to see the massive orange face of Starfire filling his vision, their corneas only millimeters apart. He was so close he could smell the jasmine in her hair… he gulped and scooted back a few inches. This was too much.. the Teen Titans—and the team's girls at that!

He must have passed out and was now in some sort of delirious pre-death dream!

"What," a new voice—a harsh male voice—burst in, "did you think you were doing out here by yourself?"

Recognizing the voice, Davis stood and spun around to see a teen standing several inches taller than him, and clearly several years older. He held a metal bo-staff in one hand, and he was wearing a costume that had been iconic for over a decade.

"R… Robin!" Davis uttered in an act of nearly worshipful disbelief… "Holy 'no way this is happening', Batman!"

Robin scowled. "You do realize that I'm not the same Robin with the 'holy' obsession, right? Now please, I know you've been through a lot tonight, but answer my question. Who are you and why are you out here?"

"I… My name is.. Davis, sir. I was trying to stop the Cajun people from robbing the jewelry store."

"Alone?" Beast Boy blurted. "These dudes have been eluding us for days. What did you think you were gonna do? Give them static electricity shock with that hair of yours?"

Davis frowned deeply at Beast Boy, but didn't let the sting of the comment get to him. Much. "Funny he said. I'm a metahuman…" He stretched his arm out, demonstrating his powers to the disbelieving teens.

"Look kid, you look more like a Super Sayian wannabe than a superhero. You almost got yourself killed, and you would have died tonight if we hadn't showed up."

"I know… and I'm very grateful for your help…"

"I would like to point out," Raven said, "That if he hadn't slowed them down, we still wouldn't have caught them. We're the ones that should be thanking you."

"You can't be serious!" Robin blurted to Raven.

"Well, technically," Starfire started…

Robin held up a hand to silence her. "Fine. He was useful in slowing them down. But we can't have rookies risking their lives and putting us on the spot like this. We're lucky we got here in time for Raven to heal you."

Davis turned to Raven. "You…?"

"A talent," she explained. "Taught to me by my mother but made possible by what I inherited from my blasted father."

"Father?"

Beast Boy disregarded official policy _not_ to mention the fact that Raven and Trigon were related. "Yeah, remember that big red four-eyed dude that attacked the world a few weeks ago?"

"Thanks for blurting it out," Raven muttered.

"Oh dear." Davis said… "I… I'm sorry… still… " He stood there, staring at the five Titans (where was that new guy, the one with the funny Norse name?) in total awe, and completely clueless as to what to say.

"So…." Beast Boy said. "Can we keep him?"

Raven glared at him. "Davis is not an animal, Beast Boy. But I think he should stay tonight in the Tower. I wasn't able to fully close the wound because there was too much pain to siphon out." She turned to him. "And you lost quite a bit of blood. You'll probably be weak for a day or two."

"Great…" Davis said. "But… thanks. So… We're going to your place?"

"Yeah." Robin said. "For now. This night isn't much longer, though. It's nearly 4AM."

Davis gulped. His parents were going to kill him when they found out he was gone. But he didn't want the Titans to react to such an admission by sending him straight home, and worse, probably telling them about his activities…

"We all need rest," Cyborg said. "Raven, you up to teleporting us or should I call a cab?"

"No," she said. "I still have enough energy for that left."

And then the six teens were enshrouded by blackness.

**

* * *

**

At the tower, Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire had all retired to bed, while Gar and Robin stayed with Davis and made up the couch for him to sleep on.

"Sorry we don't have a better bed room, but Ragnarok took Terra's," Beast Boy said. "He's supposed to be back tonight."

"Where is he, anyway?" Davis asked.

"Visiting his parents in another dimension," Robin answered absently, grabbing a pillow from some adjacent room and tossing it to Gar.

"Another dimension? Weird…"

"If," Beast Boy said, "you think that is weird, you should have been with the Doom Patrol. On one mission we had to fight Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and Codpiece inside a giant blimp shaped like Chip the Cat."

"The Beanie Baby?"

"Yup"

"…Codpiece?" Davis asked after a beat.

Robin walked over and shook his head. "You really don't wanna know," he said.

Davis shuddered. "I'd imagine not."

"And that was while Beast Boy was with them," Robin said. "You should have seen what happened after he left. The Men from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.—they took weird to a whole new level."

Shaking his head and sighing, Davis sank into the couch and was asleep in an instant.

"Tomorrow," Robin said, "we'll have to find out where he came from and what his motives are."

"Dude, he seems nice enough. You have to be so picky about it?"

"We've been burned twice by new members, Beast Boy. I know Tara and Ragnarok both turned out okay in the end, but they kept things from us, and it resulted in disaster. I don't want to go through that—not again. We find out everything up front. No secrets this time. No secrets and no lies."

Beast Boy nodded. "You're right. But don't talk about Tara like that. She…."

Robin had already gone off to bed, and was ignoring Beast Boy completely…

"Whatever," he said. And then he went on to bed too.


	19. Yin: You Can't Go Home Often

**Teen Titans in Colors  
Chapter Nineteen – Yin: You Can't Go Home… Often**

The next morning, the sun climbed higher into the sky, hovering over Jump City. The buildings shined, just as they had the day all the Titans had first met. Raven was right—building their 'house' out there was a good decision. Robin reached down and picked up his small coffee cup, and brought it to his lips for a sip. Normally, he would have been up early enough to watch the sunrise or going to bed just as it did. But yesterday's strange hours had thrown his biological clock into disarray for the time being.

So he had gotten up late, and sat, collecting his thoughts. What to do with this new child, Davis, was consuming much of his brain power. Raven seemed to trust him. After all, she had been the one who recommend they take him back to the tower, and the word of an empath was good enough for him—at that moment. He would have to do background checks, power and biological tests, everything he possibly could to avoid a repeat of the previous two 'newest Titans'.

Robin heard a door slide open in the hallway, and didn't hear any footsteps coming towards him. Starfire must have gotten up. His mind was on autopilot after this, and even though he heard the pouring and mixing behind him, he didn't register anything was off at first.

Until he felt a pair of hands rest on his shoulders, and begin to massage. Though it felt good, it wasn't terribly like Starfire to do such a thing without announcing it before hand, and the only time Starfire had tried to massage anyone, it was Beast Boy. And he'd had to transform into a brontosaurus just to keep it from hurting!

"Kori?" Robin asked, "what are you doing?"

A gentle hum that began just as he started to speak instantly made him realize that it wasn't Starfire behind him. "Sorry," said Raven. "She's still in bed."

"Raven? What are you doing?"

"Massaging your shoulders."

"WHY are you massaging my shoulders?"

"You're tense. Really tense. I felt your stress from halfway across the tower. You've been uptight ever since—"

"Stop," Robin said.

"Why?" Raven asked, not stopping.

"You're making me uncomfortable." Robin said through clenched teeth.

"No, I'm not," Raven said. "I can sense you relaxing. You're afraid, though. Of what Starfire would say if she saw us. And perhaps also, you feel obligated to become like Bruce. Alone in his mansion still mourning the deaths of his parents decades later."

'I am not like—" Robin suddenly stopped, stood up, and turned around without saying a word, and then stared Raven in the eyes. "What did you just say."

"You constantly insist that you aren't Batman. But at the same time you feel obligated to become him. I've been in your head, remember?" Raven's face was a mixture of concern and frustration, though far more on the side of concern.

"You just said 'Bruce'."

"Bruce Wayne," Raven affirmed. "Batman."

"How did you know that? I've never disclosed his identity to anyone."

Raven looked down, seeming pensive, and then looked back up. "Robin, we _all_ know. The night after the fight in Miami you started talking in your sleep on how you had to 'be more like Bruce' and 'he wouldn't have let all those people die'…"

Robin's eyes narrowed…. "You kept something like that a secret from me?"

"They thought it was best if you didn't know—everyone else. I don't see the problem. We're not going to tell anyone."

"If you do—"

"We won't," Raven assured him. Then she frowned. "Great. Now you're even more tense than you were when I started. Is this about our guest? I mean, not this tension, but the tension earlier."

"Raven… you're acting…"

"Weird?" she asked pointedly. "I'm finally free of my father's influence. I'm finally free to use my emotions. How do you expect me to act? The same way I did for the first seventeen years of my life? Like an emotionless robot?"

Robin didn't say anything for a minute. This was a new development. Some sort of new personality quirk, some sort of emotional overdrive, developing in Raven? She had never been so quick to show her concern for others, or to snap him off. Beast Boy, sure, but Beast Boy usually deserved it. And he wasn't the leader.

"Okay," he said. "Granted. I don't mean to force you to act a certain way…" Robin trailed off, unable to say the next thought. Sure, he had thought of what Kori would have thought… if she had walked in on the scene. But he wasn't going to admit that out loud. Never.

"Robin," Raven said. "…Tim… You have to stop blaming yourself for what happened in Miami. It's not the fault of anyone in this tower. You've been having nightmares about it—I've seen glimpses of them in my own dreams."

Robin cursed his transparency. Why did he have to wear his obsessions, his secrets, on his sleeve? Did Bruce ever have bad dreams about his parents' death? Or about Andrea Beaumont, or Harvey Dent, and his failures to bring them back to the light? Did he have nightmares about Jason Todd's death? Or about what the Joker had done to him, and what he had done to the Joker in turn?

"You're right," he said. "But it's not going to be easy to convince the irrational part of me."

"Emotions never are perfectly rational," Raven answered. "I'm discovering that more and more each day. Sometimes I find myself hating Trevor for ever existing, just because of how it made me feel when he died—when Slade murdered him."

Robin nodded. He had, briefly, had similar thoughts about his father long ago… Raven would grow beyond it, just as he had.

"Rae, I'm going out on early patrol for a bit. Can you watch Davis while I'm gone, just in case he wakes up before anyone else does."

"Sure," she said. "Be careful, Tim."

Robin nodded. "I've been trained by the best."

**

* * *

**

Collin Roberts woke up, stretching. He felt more alive than he had in a while—after spending a full three days in his home universe he felt somehow… refreshed. Or maybe it was just actually being able to be with his parents. James and Sarah were far from perfect, far from the perfect couple, but they tried. And they really cared about their son. When the Titans had been killed by Delirium, both of them had feared the worst for their son.

They'd been overjoyed to learn he was alive, but also understood why he had decided to stay in the other universe, and he could never thank them enough for that. Of course they thought it was weird, but who wouldn't?

Before he returned to Earth-321, Ragnarok decided he has one more person to visit: Beast Boy. The only survivor other than himself of the battle against Delirium, Collin was somewhat afraid that Beast Boy had gone into despair. Fortunately, he was apparently coping; he had become an actor down in Los Angeles. He was currently working on a new movie based on Space Trek, which was such an obvious rip off of Star Trek that Collin couldn't for the life of him figure out why Paramount didn't sue.

Using the Dark Catalyst, Rag had gotten himself into the studio and then detransformed, walking into the stage where shooting was wrapping up.

"Cut!" shouted the director. "That was good, Garfield. Very good."

"Yeah," said the green teen absently. "Thanks." From the tone of his voice, he sounded quite out of it.

"What's the matter?" asked a nearby co-star. "You look rough."

"Ah, nothing, Janet," he said. "Just memories. I lost a lot of friends, you know."

"Yeah!" shouted Collin, closing in on Gar, "but you didn't lose all of them!"

Garfield blinked twice, then his eyes flashed with anger; obviously he wasn't as happy to see Collin as Collin was to see him. "You. What are you doing here? You have a lot of nerve showing your face here after running away from the fight like that." Gar almost jumped at him, almost became a lion to reach out and strike Collin down. But he held himself back….

Rag took a step back, and frowned. "I know it hurts. I lost them all too, Beast Boy."

"I'm not Beast Boy anymore," Gar said.

"Sorry." Ragnarok looked at the ground, kicking at some non-existent object. "I just thought it would be good to apologize for all that happened. I—"

"Apology accepted," Beast Boy said angrily. "Now go away."

"Fine," he muttered. "Just trying to make peace…" Ragnarok started to walk away, deeply frustrated by his cold response from Gar. Sure, he hadn't taken Delirium out, but in this universe it wasn't HIS fault the atrocities had happened. In his own universe, he hadn't known like he had when he met the Earth-321 Titans.

But Beast Boy simply saw him as someone to blame for the deaths of his friends, and in the end, how can you argue with someone who's lost everything….

Suddenly, the world began spinning really fast, and Ragnarök found himself quickly getting dizzy. What was…

"Oh, glomp!" Somebody shouted.

Ragnarok stabilized himself to see a man clutching his stomach, lying on the ground, and spitting up blood. He'd been hit really hard by something, something moving very fast, the same fast-moving thing that had spun Rag around.

"Gar!" he shouted, running over to the teen. "You may not like me, but there's obviously a super-speedster in here. We need to take him out."

"Not him," Gar said. "Her!" Beast Boy pointed towards a woman in a tank top and skirt standing across the stage, leaning against the helm controls of the Starship _Tetrion_, a V emblem blazoned on her chest. "Valerie 'Velocity' Vickers. She's been terrorizing Coast City for weeks."

"Smile, boys," Velocity said with a veiled threat in her voice. Suddenly in a blur, the entire Space Trek set was rearranged, and three cameras were flying at Gar and Collin. The two teens dived out of the way, Garfield pulling off his costume to reveal his Doom Patrol suit underneath it, complete with technology that allowed him to transform without ripping it.

He saw Rag looking at him, and said, "Don't be surprised. I still do hero work every now and then. But I go by Changeling when I do."

"Heh, once a hero, always a hero, Gar," Collin said, then willed his armor to activate. It did so in a flash of light.. "Once more, for old time's sake," he said.

"If it will make you go away," Gar said, "fine by me. Let's bring her down!"

**

* * *

**

Back at Titans Tower, Raven and Davis had spent the morning chatting about things. Raven got the sense that he wasn't really that desirous of the job of a superhero, but that he felt he had to, that if he didn't, he could never live with himself. Raven sensed that she might not be able to talk him out of it, but she was dang sure gonna try. _Curse you, Stan Lee, and you amazing gifts as a writer! _

"Davis," she said after a bit, "look. If you don't want to be a hero, you don't have to be. You shouldn't do things just because you've guitled yourself into needing it. Your powers kind of suck anyway."

Davis put his hands behind his head and smiled broadly. "That's what all the ladies say until I show them the hidden benefits to my talent." Ahem. The author doth protest that that joke was Legend Maker's idea.

"You've never had a girlfriend in your life, have you?" Raven asked.

Dejectedly, Davis hung his head. "No."

He leaned forward on the couch, and then began speaking. "Raven, I know you don't think I'm cut out for this, or that my motivations aren't good, or whatever. You're trying to talk me out of something that, if I don't do it, I'll drive myself CRAZY. I'm terrified I'll flip out if just one 'uncle Ben' esque incident happens to me."

"It sounds to me like you've been watching too much Spiderman," she said. "You can use your powers responsibly without throwing yourself at a bunch of thugs. Your abilities can be just as dangerous to you as they are useful against your enemies."

Davis started to respond, when suddenly the door slid open with a hiss, and Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire walked into the room, all of them gathering around Ragnarok. Robin opened up a legal pad and began to make some notes.

"Why is everyone giving me the silent treatment?" Davis asked suddenly.

"Sorry," Robin said. "We've had two people join our team under false pretenses before. I have to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Ever. That means no lies, and no convenient omissions. Got it?"

"Got it," Davis said seriously.

"Okay," Starfire said, "we shall begin by asking what your real full name is."

"Davis Arthur Gregory Jefferson," he said. "Please overlook my second middle name in the profile if at all possible…"

"Wait" said Beast Boy. "You're name is Davis Jefferson? Like the Civil War dude backwards? Is that a coincidence?"

"Or a pun," Davis said. "I don't know. Apparently my parents had a strange sense of humor."

"Apparently?" Robin asked. "Wouldn't you know if anyone does?"

"Not exactly," he said. "My biological parents…I've never met them. According to my adopted family, my mother was from Calcutta, and my dad was a Navajo. They met at some sort of government science lab were they were both working as researchers for a meta-serum in order to make super soldiers. Project CLAMUS or something."

"Cadmus," Robin corrected. "They've been a thorn in the Justice League's side for years."

"Right," Davis said. "Anyway, they fell in love, got married, and continued working there. Eventually they were to be the first human test subjects for a version of the meta-serum. During this time they accidentally got pregnant somehow, and I was born. They wanted to put me up for adoption, but to do this they had to hide my abilities from the lab were I was born. How they accomplished this I have no idea. In the end I was adopted by Sam Parsons—he was a friend of my dad way back or something. The Parsons raised me, so I consider them my real parents…"

"But still, you would like to find you your biological parents, right?" Raven asked.

"Yeah," Davis said. "I guess. I'd just like to meet them. Show them that, you know, all they went through to get me away from a testing lab was worth it."

"Do you know their names?" Robin asked. "We may be able to help you with that."

"I don't know my mother's name. My dad's name _was_ David Jefferson, but he changed it once from his Navajo birth name. I don't know that it's the same thing now."

Suddenly, Robin reached into his briefcase and pulled out a golden lasso that seemed to glow in the late-morning light. "Now, I assume you probably already know what this is. Tell anybody about my having it, and Wonder Girl will be in very big trouble with Wonder Woman. She will probably take this trouble out on me. Got it?"

Davis nodded, his lips pursing and then stretching very tightly together. "Mmm mps mrr mealed," Davis said. "Why do you have it?"

Robin responded by wrapping Davis up in it and pulling it tight. Raven used her powers to prevent him from stretching his way out of it, so Davis stopped resisting and began sweating as Robin interrogated him.

"What superhero handle would you prefer to use, and why?"

"Yin," said Davis. "My power makes me soft and stretchy. I can take blows a lot better than I can dish them out; I'm the opposite of Yang."

"Have you ever, in any way shape or form, been involved with a supervillain or supervillainess to your knowledge?"

"No," Yin said.

"Have you ever used your powers in a way that might be considered abusive?" Cyborg asked, reading from an internal prompt that Robin had written into his hard drive.

"Once or twice. Flicked my cousin Catalina across the playground once after she threw sand in my hair. That was years ago. Might have done it a few other times, can't remember."

Robin smirked. "What is your birth date?"

"Nineteenth of February, 1994." Yin responded.

Raven's eyes widened. She hadn't realized he was that young. Only fourteen… He certainly had a much higher mental maturity than most 14-year-olds.

"That's the same as…" Robin opened his mouth and let it hang there for a moment. _Idiot_… Same as Bruce Wayne's, but he couldn't let Davis Jefferson know that.

"The same as who?" asked Davis. "Yours?"

"Never mind," Robin said.

"My turn," Beast Boy said. "Okay, tell me the truth: _Space Trek_, or _Clash of the Planets_? Be honest!"

"_Honest_ly," Yin said, "I've never cared for either of them. Both are rip offs of better shows."

Beast Boy facevaulted. "I hate you, man. You're no fun."

"Will you," Cyborg began, "ever ask to drive the T-Car?"

Yin blinked. "I'm not sure what the T-Car is. I probably won't ask to drive it as I'm still two years away from my driver's license."

"Would you ever think about taking it without permission?"

Yin thought a moment. "Probably."

"Then you can't join the team," Cyborg said.

"WHAT?"

"He's joking," Robin said.

"No I'm not," Cyborg said smugly.

"Vic. You're joking." Robin's voice left no room for argument on the matter. Cyborg was joking, darn it.

"Alright," Robin said at last, "would you ever betray the Titans for enough money?"

"No!" Yin blurted.

"Are you in any way, shape, or form, knowingly a spy or saboteur, or working for one?"

"No!" Yin said again. "I've always looked up to you guys. Why the frell would I betray you?"

"We have to be more than just careful," Raven said. "Remember, twice we've been burned by potential allies for not getting full disclosure. It's safer this way for both you and the team."

"If you say so," Davis said with a frown. "But I'm not a criminal. I don't even know any criminals unless they're like… secretly criminals."

Yin glanced around the tower, and Raven could see that something was bothering him, but he didn't want to tell them. She wasn't going to pry into his personal business. Then, she realized that he was wrapped in Wonder Woman's lasso of truth. He couldn't dodge the question even if he wanted to.

"Davis, what is bothering you?" she asked.

"Just, I'm worried about my parents, or really that they think I'm dead. I need to call them."

"WHAT?" Robin suddenly blurted. "You mean your adoptive parents are still alive, in Jump City right now, and don't know where you've gone?" He was clearly really angry, and Raven could sense that he felt really stupid for not thinking to ask such an obvious question as 'where are your parents now?'…

"I left a letter on my bed when I left last night. They know where I went to, but I also said I'd try and be back before they got up. I'm afraid they'll think I'm dead since I didn't come home. It's already nearly noon."

Robin sighed, and looked out the window towards the city, disturbed by this news. "Yin, you realize that if your parents don't allow you to do this, you aren't going to join this team."

"Now I do," he said, still compelled by the lasso not to fudge the truth.

Cyborg shook his head. "Why can't anything just be easy for a change?"

"Just not the hero way," Beast Boy said. "Say, where is Ragnarok anyway? We were totally supposed to have our rematch in Super Robot Monkey Wars 4 today."

**

* * *

**

Ragnarok _wished_ he were playing Super Robot Monkey Wars 4. Valerie Velocity was tearing him and the other Changeling apart, and though she wasn't faring MUCH better, she was indeed fairing better. The only advantage they had was that she could only use her super speed in short bursts, unlike most speedsters who actually drew energy from the Speed Force to prevent fatigue.

Velocity blasted forward and slammed Ragnarok in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Rag flipped in mid air and landed on his butt, then used his power to hurl some rocks from a nearby construction site. Velocity blurred out of the way of the rocks, but slammed into the fist of Changeling, and fell flat on her back.

Ragnarok used this as an opportunity to drop a bunch of rocks on her head, but Velocity rolled out of the way at super speed, causing the rocks to slam into the pavement. She then charged at Changeling, who had transformed into a triceratops, and ran up his hardened skull, dodging the spikes on it and then proceeding down his back, making super-hot footprints as she ran.

Changeling toppled over in pain and transformed into a small raptor, then charged forward, using his speed to get to Velocity before she recuperated. Unfortunately, he was too slow, and the speedster blasted off in a different direction, circling around them.

"What exactly do you want?" Collin blurted, trying to trip her up with a mini-earthquake. But Velocity stumbled, but didn't totally fall… Until Ragnarok make one last upwards motion with his wrist, which the ground complied with. "You're not robbing banks, you don't seem the type for world domination… What is it?"

"You know what the song says, kid," Velocity bit out. "Girl's just wanna have fun!" With that, Velocity began spinning at super speed into the pile of dirt she had just tripped over, blasting it all into Ragnarök's face faster than he could react with his powers.

Changeling stepped in, this time as a mess of…sea weed?

"How in the snorkel did you do that?" he shouted, coughing up dirt.

Gar didn't respond, but instead fell on Velocity, forcing herself to grow more tangled up by twisting with her rather than against her, until neither were effectively capable of motion. Suddenly, a voice seemed to come from nowhere in particular within the mess of weeds. "Something Delirium unlocked in me. Before, changing cross-kingdom usually resulted in me needing magic to change back. Now I can become—and even talk as—any organism. Hence the new name."

"Nice," Ragnarok said…

Suddenly, Velocity blasted straight up, taking Gar with her, and then began spinning so fast that sea-weed Changeling was ripped off of her in multiple directions by the centrifugal force, screaming as his pieces flew everywhere.

"Ah, crud," Rag said, running away as Velocity came crashing down at him. She missed, and Ragnarok changed directions, backing up near a big metal…

He turned and realized that it was a large tanker truck. Full of gasoline. Scratch that. A tanker _formerly_ full of gasoline. Gasoline, which Rag observed, was now coating the ground all around him. Several pointed rocks stuck out of the side of the tanker, betraying himself as the culprit.

Velocity zipped over, splashing the gasoline upward. "Oh, it looks like you're having fun playing with what's left of some old fossils... Maybe you should go join their ranks!" With that, the girl blazed away across the lot, leaving a flaming trail as she went.

A flaming trail that ignited the gas fumes around Ragnarok.

**_KRAKOOOM!_**

Ragnarok threw up a Dark Catalyst shield at the last second, and still got quite toasty from the blast.

He also passed out, though he didn't realize this until much later. Actually, he didn't realize it until he was awakened by Changeling, who had apparently been reconstructed during Rag's nap. Now it was dark outside, and several fire trucks and police surrounded the area. Thankfully nobody had died in the blast, but Ragnarok was terribly humiliated that some super-speed chick had defeated him and Gar. And all because he had been afraid to use the Dark Catalyst against her.

"Ragnarok, if you're alright, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Go back to Idaho. I know Delirium wasn't you, but he used you to get close to us, and I just don't want you around."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Gar," Collin said. "I'm gone. I hadn't planned on staying _this_ long. But it's not Idaho I'm going back to." Rag held up his hand, letting the Dark Catalyst's energy discharged, hurling him across the void between realities.

It may not have been where he was born, but it was clear now that Earth-321 was his home.

**

* * *

**

Davis' adoptive mother sat on her son's bed, crying as she clutched the note tightly to her chest. Where had Davis gone? Why was he doing this? What if the note was a decoy and he'd been abducted for some reason? What if the government had found him? Or what if he had really done what he said he was going to do, and ended up lying face down in a gutter with his throat slit open?

It was just too much for a mother. Davis' father had been out with the search party all morning, and was now sitting in the living room downing a bottle of straight whiskey…

"Oh, Davis," she sobbed. "Please come home…"

Suddenly, a silhouette stepped out of the shadows behind her, his footstep on the wood of Davis' floor making her jump. "Who's there?"

The figure stepped farther forward, revealing a very familiar image—green tights, a red tunic, and a black-and-gold cape draped over his shoulders. Robin, the Boy Wonder. Leader of Jump City's protectors, the Teen Titans. If she was seeing him, the news couldn't be good…

"Oh, have you found my son?" she blurted, the look on his face telling her nothing, and with her imagination, telling her nothing was the same as telling her he was dead.

"In a manner of speaking," Robin said. "Last night he tried to stop a robbery… He was wounded… But…"

"Oh, is he okay?" Davis' mother blurted, hoping that the news was getting better.

"Mrs. Parsons… why don't you ask him yourself?"

Robin pointed towards the window, where Davis was looking in, his eyes teary… He stretched forward, coming on into his room the same way he'd left the night before. "Hi.. Mom…"

Mrs. Parsons leapt forward and pulled her son into a tight hug, prompting a slight cry of pain…

"Oh, I'm sorry, honey, are you alright?"

"I got cut open," he said, his face fluctuating between sob and grin. "They fixed me up, mostly. It still hurts a bit, like a surgery scar, but I'm really fine, mom. Don't worry. I'm just lucky they got there in time…"

A few moments passed, Davis and his mother talking, him mostly assuring her he was fine. Never once did she reprimand him for doing something so stupid as what he'd done last night. Eventually, his father had come in to see what was going on and nearly fell over when he saw his son alive.

He was much quicker to point out how unintelligent Davis' actions were… But it was clear he too cared a lot about Davis…

For a moment, Tim envied the young boy, but he put those thoughts aside quickly. Nothing good would come of them. "Mr. Parsons, Mrs. Parsons. We need to talk," he said at last.

"About what?" she asked.

"The reason I'm here is that your son apparently wants to join the Titans. I think he has potential, but…"

"Absolutely not!" Mr. Parsons blurted. "My son is not going to be throwing himself at terrorists and psychopaths. I nearly had a heart attack this morning when Helen found that letter… Besides, Davis is still in school. He can't go live at some Tower in the middle of the bay."

"Dad…" Yin said… "Are you sure we can't… negotiate?"

**

* * *

**

Hours later, Robin entered the tower alone. Starfire got up from her chair where she was petting Silkie, and Ragnarok, now back, paused his game against Beast Boy. Cyborg and Raven entered the room too.

"You were gone for a very long time, Tim," Kori said. "What has happened to Friend Davis?"

Robin removed his cape and got a soda out of the refrigerator without answering, then sat down on the couch. "His parents have agreed to let him join us. On a part time basis only. He'll be here only on the weekends, maybe some days off from school. His dad is still very against this, but he was convinced that Davis really wanted it."

"But he doesn't," Raven said. "He's doing it because he feels obligated to. That can be dangerous."

"Oh, come on," Cyborg said. "He seemed like a nice guy. How can you not like him?"

Raven looked to Vic. "I didn't say I don't _like_ him. I said I don't think he needs to be a superhero."

"Well," Robin said, "for better or worse, he's going to be one. It's better for him to take this job with the support of the rest of the Titans than to go out alone again and get himself killed."

"Agreed," Starfire said solemnly.

As the rest of the Titans returned to what they were doing before Robin returned, Raven stayed and looked into Robin's eyes, and into his emotions. Clearly he was displeased with how the meeting went, but there was something else eating away at him. Raven didn't know what it was, but she feared it was not only impairing his judgment—letting a kid rookie with a self-endangering power on the team, drinking a soda (him? A soda?)…

She only hoped he wasn't making a mistake. For everyone's sakes.


	20. Yin: Boiling Point

**Teen Titans in COLORS  
Chapter Twenty: Boiling Point  
**

* * *

**Thursday, 11:49 PM**

"This one is one of the worst," the unattractive middle-aged woman said, handing the key to the prisoner's cell to the officer in front of her. Trent Brown accepted the key with a nod, and turned to give his subordinates orders. "Smith, tell the vehicle to prepare for his arrival. Johnson, come with me."

Smith left to get to the truck in time, while Johnson turned and followed Trent down the hall.

"So, boss," began Johnson after a bit of silence. "Who exactly is it that we're moving this time."

Trent sighed. He'd read the report and knew that the Leap Canyon Penitentiary wasn't enough to hold this man. That he would, eventually, escape. Usually the worst ones had names to match, but this guy simply called himself…

"Flare," Trent said. "Real name Hideo Kawabe. Japanese immigrant, advanced pyrokinetic. He suffers from a severe case of schizophrenia. He literally believes that he's the son of the god Raiden, and that everyone else is his plaything."

Johnson's throat produced an audible gulp. "Previous escape attempts?"

"Two," Brown said. "Six guards were injured in the first. Twelve in the second. That's why we're taking him to Stonegate."

Johnson removed his energy pistol from his belt and adjusted the settings. "I see."

"Funny thing is, since the first two, he's not tried to escape again in nearly two months."

Johnson and Brown arrived at the cell of Hideo Kawabe. It was certainly unique—the entire thing was air-tight, sealed off from all gasses but oxygen and water vapor. The room had an automatic flooding system if it got too hot, and a duo of remote control spray nozzles on the northwest and southeast corners of the room.

Flare himself stood somberly in the middle of the room as two men in flame-retardant suits fitted him in a straightjacket.

"Let's go to work," Trent said.

* * *

After everything was set up to transfer Kawabe to Stonegate, Brown and Johnson grabbed their equipment and led the sullen prisoner out of his cell. At 21, Kawabe was still in his physical prime, and had metahuman talents to boot. So Brown's men took extra precautions, lining the tube that would transfer the teen to the cryo-freeze truck with fire-retardant material, not to mention the solid steel underneath would take a lot of heat to melt. Oxygen was the only gas in the chamber, and the neither the agents' clothing, nor the straightjacket that Flare wore would combust in it.

It should have been a perfect, fool-proof set up….

But outside the makeshift corridor that led to the truck, a storm had begun. And against all odds, lightning struck in the worst possible place, blasting several of the bolts off the outside of the corridor. Nobody on the inside noticed the damage; the lights just flickered and the thunder was deafening, but there was no further indication anything was amiss…

If only.

"My father is pleased with me," Flare said, suddenly turning and looking at them with a grin.

Trent Brown leveled his pistol on the psychotic teenager. "Listen, kid. Try anything, and I will not hesitate to blow your brains out. I've dealt with your type enough to know that nothing but death will cure your disease."

Foolish man," Flare said. "You are mortal. And you are powerless against me."

Three things then happened at once.

Flare blinked.

Trent fired.

And flames exploded. Hydrogen from the air outside poured in, combining with the oxygen inside and forming fire—simply because Flare was willing it to happen.

The explosion of fire blasted Brown and Johnson backwards, even as Flare escaped into outside air through the hole he had blasted in the transfer corridor. Two guards appeared, revolvers drawn, and fired at him. But the criminal dived out of the way and exhaled, causing two streams of fire to fire out and incinerate both guards in an instant.

His arms were still bound in the straightjacket, but unlike most pyrokinetics, he had complete control over the explosions around him and did not need to make gestures for the flames to obey his thoughts.

Thunder cracked across the sky, and Flare felt a drop of rain hit his face. Perhaps his father was not pleased—perhaps the great Raiden had allowed him to escape, only to slay him with a deluge of water the likes of which had not been seen since the Meiji Restoration…

Another explosion. Flare saw it as a sign, this time. A sign that he should leave, and that the deluge was not there to kill him, but to cover his escape. "Thank you, father," Flare said to the inanimate sky.

Flare hovered off the ground, flames exploding around him, and blasted away, burning any guard that got in his way.

His next objective, of course, was revenge—revenge against those teens that dared call themselves Titans, who had dared to oppose him. But first, he needed to lay low while the coming rain storm rain its course.

* * *

**Friday, 3:30 PM**

Large white clouds drifted through a blue backdrop, lit by the brilliant afternoon sun, and Davis smiled broadly, taking it all in as he dragged his suitcases outside. He couldn't imagine a more perfect day to join the Teen Titans.

Except…

"I told you once, Helen, there is no way Davis is ready for this!" the loud, harsh voice of his father reached him through the half-open window.

"So you'd rather him go out alone and get himself killed?" his mother shot back bitterly. "Honestly, dear you're being irrational. Just because Nathan got killed—"

"You think this is about Nathan?" Davis' father was either disgusted by the remark or in denial; Davis couldn't tell. Nathan was Davis' cousin, the son of his father's brother. Davis' dad had loved his nephew almost as much as his own son, but Nathan had gone into law enforcement and ended up getting killed by drug smugglers.

Though he knew his dad was only looking out for his own best interests, Davis shook his head. Did they think he couldn't hear them? Or maybe his dad was trying to guilt Davis into not joining the team... Did it really even matter? Davis had been given the opportunity of a lifetime—granted more for his own protection than any help the Titans thought he'd be to them.

Still, that fact didn't hurt nearly as bad as the fact his father still insisted he wasn't cut out for it. Nathan died because he got unlucky, not because he wasn't ready. Davis decided he'd have to learn to be even more ready. Maybe then his dad would see things differently.

Suddenly, a loud honk caused the stretchy teen to jerk his head forward, and Davis saw a large black sedan at the edge of his walkway. "Yo, man, get in the car!" shouted the driver, a large black teenager with a shaved head.

Davis instantly recognized the voice…

"Cyborg?!"

"Yeah, man," the driver said. He leaned forward as Davis approached the vehicle, a big grin on his face. Suddenly, the right side of his face seemed to dissolve away into the familiar half-metal mask. "Holographic technology," Cyborg explained

Davis glanced at the other two passengers in the car—riding shot gun was a short guy with red hair and dark skin, and in the back, was a blond-haired kid that kind of resembled Eddie Munster…

"Robin? Beast Boy?" Davis identified them.

"Yeah, shout to the world you're a Titan, dude," Beast Boy scolded. "Get in the car—I'm missing _Robot Monkey Force_."

"Thanks for the hospitality," Davis muttered, throwing his bags in the back and climbing in opposite of Beast Boy. Cyborg shifted the car into drive and pulled away, heading towards an unpopulated area of town before deactivating the cloaking shield around the car and returning it to it's normal T-Car coloration.

"Pretty nifty to have, huh?" Cyborg glanced back at Davis.

"Yeah," he said absently; Davis had already pulled out his DS and begun a game of _Meteos. _

Cyborg frowned. "Well, don't make yourself sick."

After a few minutes of driving, Robin frowned. "Is it just me or does anyone smell alcohol?"

Beast Boy briefly turned into a snake and tasted the air. "Oh, man, I do."

Davis, finally a bit more aware of his surroundings, looked up and sniffed. "Hm…"

He reached down and pulled up a section of his coat and sniffed it. "Oh, crap, the vodka…"

"Davis," Robin said. "Please tell me you're not drinking hard liquor at fourteen. I will not tolerate that on my team."

"NO!" Davis blurted, putting his DS in sleep mode and turning to the Titans leader. "It's not _mine._ My dad got mad last night and threw his vodka bottle at the wall by the coat rack."

Robin glared at him a bit, and then nodded. "I believe you. But if your dad continues doing things like that, you need to tell us. There's no reason for him to be so upset. We're going to make sure you're equipped to handle this job." Robin smirked. "Even if it kills you."

Davis' audible gulp was the last sound anyone in the car made until they reached the Tower.

* * *

**Friday, 4:00 PM**

No alarms had gone off all day, so while Cyborg and Beast Boy ran off to play some video games, Robin took Yin into the T-Tower's gym and started him on a basic workout regimen. "You have to balance this," Robin explained. "Too much working out and you'll be exhausted when there's trouble. Too little and you won't be in shape when it counts."

After taking off his jacket, Davis nodded, having absorbed the Boy Wonder's words as though they were being spoken by the Pope himself. Even if they did have a harsh edge to them... "I understand. I've been doing a little weightlifting, you know, preparing for this. And like I said, I know some karate."

"Remember to fall back on that," Robin said. "But at your age and strength level, you should rely on your metahuman ability all you can."

Davis nodded, but by this point, his attention span had run out, and he had already wondered over to a rack of wooden bo-staffs and began examining them..

Until he accidentally dropped one and knocked all the others off the rack trying to catch it.

"Oops.."

"Davis, pay attention!" Robin jerked the bo he'd caught from his hand and put it back on the rack, along with all the others. "This isn't a game. You can't be a klutz or people will get killed."

"I know that!" Davis snapped, though not without a strong tone of apology… "Sorry. You seem… upset."

"Well, one," Robin said, "I don't like this the idea of having you on the team. I probably dislike it about as much as Raven. But unlike her, I see that you have potential—if you pay attention."

"Is there a two?" Davis asked…

"Yes," Robin said. He sighed heavily, and turned his back to Davis. "Last night, a dangerous criminal known as Flare escaped during a prison transfer. He's an extremely powerful pyrokinetic, and he wouldn't hesitate to melt you. In other words, he couldn't have picked a worse possible week to break out of jail."

"I see…" Davis frowned. "Well, shall we get started?"

"Right." The Boy Wonder walked over to Davis and brought him over to the corner of the gym… then he smirked. "First we're going to start with a drill I like to call the hara-kiri."

Davis let out another audible gulp.

And for his part, he survived, though only after sweating profusely and crying in shame.

* * *

**Friday, 8:50 PM**

The sleek copper-colored ship made another pass around the ancient Thanagarian frigate and blasted three times, the particle cannons below the cockpit reducing the much larger ship to atoms in a matter of seconds. Target practice was in session.

"BOO-YAH!" Cyborg cried as the ship exploded. "This baby packs a punch."

Robin smiled, and nodded. "You think Atomic Man did the right thing giving a bunch of teenagers one of the most powerful spaceships on earth?"

"Who cares?" Cyborg said with a mirthful smirk. "It's _mi—_I mean… _ours._"

Cyborg might have said more, but the com-link activated in front of the two teens, and Robin turned it on. The face of Mr. Terrific, the current operations officer of the JLU Watchtower, appeared on the ships small communications screen.

"That thing is mighty impressive, kids," said Terrific. "I might have to rescind my status as third smartest man if this Atomic Man character is really this good."

"Actually, I think the ship was designed by another hero named 8-Ball," Cyborg said. "He's a cyborg like me, so I guess great minds... have similar life-altering accidents."

Mr. Terrific shrugged. "If you say so. By the way, guys, I wanted to run one last test from that list of armaments you sent me. What is the 'Defibrillator Pack?'"

Robin pressed a few buttons and found the item on his list. "Beats me. We only have two of them, and the tech manual has so much techno-babble even Cyborg can't make heads or tails of it."

"A low ammo supply implies a heavy payload," Mr. Terrific said. He seemed to lean forward on the screen and press a few buttons. "I found this enormous ship within the Phantom Zone a few days ago; I'm bringing it out."

Mr. Terrific, the heroic code name of one Michael Holt, was referring to the jury-rigged mechanism he'd used to deploy ancient ships into the real world. Projecting Superman's Phantom Zone portal directly through the JLU teleportation matrix allowed him to beam the ships into space outside the Watchtower—just as he had the Thanagarian ships Robin and Cyborg were blasting.

Effectively, he was giving Robin and Cyborg target practice. Thankfully Superman was away on a mission to a foreign planet, and Holt had the tower essentially to himself. (The only other guy up there was Booster Gold, and he wouldn't tell anybody.)

The teleporter activated on schedule and the gargantuan ship materialized in space, Thousands of miles closer to the moon than to Earth, just as a precaution.

"Alright," Robin said, as he approached it. "We'll give it a shot."

As the Titans' brand new ship, which Cyborg had dubbed the T-Defender, neared their target, it was immediately clear whoever had built it, probably eons ago, knew what they were doing. The ship was at least a quarter of a mile long and armed to the teeth, great arches arching over the top of the hull and creating a rail gun across the top middle—which was reinforced by thousands of particle cannon banks all along those arches.

"We're talking S_tar Wars_-level stuff here," Cyborg said. "Dang."

Robin nodded, brining the T-Defender down over the much larger ship. "Okay, I think this is something that we drop from the bottom bay," he told Cyborg.

"Then let's get'r done!" Cyborg said, reaching out and pulling a lever faster than Robin could react to stop him, opening the bay that send the oddly-named attack down towards its target.

"Cyborg!" Robin turned the control stick and opened up the throttle; by the time the ship was far enough away that Robin felt comfortable, the Defibrillator Pack was already attaching to the ship's hull..

When it did, a signal caused the communication screen to change into a simple black background, on which a cyan box appeared. It read 'CLEAR' in stark white letters.

Robin shrugged, and reached out, tapping the screen once...

And for a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen. Then, Robin noticed a bright glowing red spot appear on the side of the ship, where the pack had struck—no, two points. Apparently the payload split apart like a pair of its namesake…

And then, everyone watching gasped when red cracks began to spread across the hull of the massive ship, until the entire surface was criss-crossed with a spider-web of glowing red lines.

_**KRAKABOOM!**_

Robin and Cyborg both let out muffled words of awe, even as beams of red energy erupted from the ship, each fragment scattering across space as the whole thing exploded like a ball of glass; chunks of metal the size of minivans slammed into the moon, even as other debris headed for Earth..

"NO!" Robin shouted, leaning forward in his seat. "Vic, we have to go blast that into smaller pieces before it get to the atmosphere…"

"One step ahead of you," Cyborg returned, preparing to attack the debris they'd created. "In the words of Han Solo, 'YEEEE-HAW!" The ship rocketed off towards the meteors, all its weapons charging…

So went the T-Defender's maiden voyage…

* * *

**Saturday, 7:50 PM**

"Rats!" Beast Boy cried, even as Cyborg's _Mangler Brothers_ character blew his away with a finishing move.

"Boo-yah," Cyborg said smoothly. "I've told you a thousand times, little green man: you ain't got nothing on these mangling skills."

"You just got lucky." After a beat, Beast Boy glanced across the room at with a devilish smirk. "I bet the newbie could beat you!"

"No way, no how," Cyborg said. "Besides, we only have two controllers." He referred to the Gamestation XL, which had controllers that cost over eighty dollars; nobody in the Tower was willing to pony up the cash for more.

"I'll opt out a game, just to see you get beaten," Gar said to Cyborg.

From across the room, Yin declined, still absorbed in his DS game. About that moment, The door to the ops room slid open with a pneumatic hiss and Raven and Starfire walked in, both carrying a bunch of bags stuffed to the brim with clothing…

"Raven!" Yin called, immediately putting his game away and joining stride beside her. "Where have you been all day?"

Raven craned her neck to look out from behind the bag at Davis. "I've spent all day with Starfire. At the 'mall of shopping'…" Raven's tone was acidic, but it lightened when she arched her eyebrow. "Yin, why are you wearing a Wii Remote and Nunchuck around your neck?"

The newest Titan heard Starfire giggle from behind her stack of bags, but answered Raven nonetheless. "They asked me if I wanted to play _Mangler Brothers_, so I went and got my controller. Didn't know they meant the GSXL version."

"That would be a good thing to _ask,_" came a new voice from behind Yin—well, not exactly a new voice. But it belonged to the only Titan he hadn't been formally introduced to yet.

"Hey, Ragnar-what," Yin muttered, pronouncing the last syllable quietly because he wasn't quite sure how to say it.

Ragnarök walked over and extended a hand. "Congratulations, dude. You've usurped my position as the greenest Titan. Well, figuratively speaking if not aesthetically."

After a few more minutes of Yin playing his game and Beast Boy and Cyborg playing theirs, Robin, Raven, and Starfire returned to the Ops room and found Yin and Ragnarök on opposite sides of the room, both looking dour.

"Did you two have a fight or something?" Raven asked Ragnarok.

"What? No…"

Yin glanced up, puzzled. "Fight with who?"

"With Ragnarök," Robin groaned. "You know, the guy in the bright green armor?"

"Um… I really don't see any point in socializing…" Yin said absently…

"But you have barely spoken to Friend Collin all weekend," Starfire said.

"He's not _my_ friend Collin," Davis said.

Robin shook his head. "This team is built around mutual respect and support. If there is a chink in that, then the team is not working at its maximum efficiency."

Davis frowned. "He's not a Scientologist is he?"

Robin goggled. "No! Where did _that _come from?"

"I just don't like Scientologists," Davis explained. "Is he a Jehovah's Witness?"

"NO!"

Davis winced. "A Mormon?"

"NO!"

"…a Catholic?"

Raven made a noise with her teeth that roughly approximating the sound metal makes when it is frozen and snapped in two. Then she grabbed Yin with her dark energy and threw him across the room into Ragnarök's chair.

"Now you're just grasping for straws. You have no reason not to get to know someone you'll be fighting crime with. I had to learn that the hard way, and it nearly got me killed despite the fact I'm a lot more powerful than you. Don't repeat my mistake."

With that, Raven vanished to the rooftop to meditate.

Beast Boy and Ragnarok helped Davis to his feet. "She does that sometimes," Rag said.

"Yeah, you get used to it," Beast Boy said. "Just be thankful she didn't turn you pink."

* * *

**Saturday, 9:13 PM**

Davis leaned back, his character in _Mangler Brothers_ having just bought the farm again. "I just can't get used to this pad. I'm too used to the Wii version."

"Too bad for you," Beast Boy said gleefully, finishing off Cyborg with a massive hammer smash.

"This isn't happening," Cyborg muttered. "I lost… to Beast Boy… no… must be a dream. Yeah. A dream."

Davis put the controller down and walked over to the fridge, opening it and examining its contents. But of all that was in the refrigerator, he went straight for a single remaining can of Coke. "I'm bored," he announced.

"How can you be bored?" Beast Boy asked. "We've got the greatest game of all time sitting right here in front of us."

"But it doesn't have motion controls."

"It has better graphics than the Wii version."

"Who cares? Using two thumb sticks to aim is old hat."

"Will you two please knock it off," Raven said, sighing from the nearby easy chair where she was absorbed deeply in a book about metahuman psychology. "If you don't want to play a game, what exactly do you want to do, Davis."

Davis scowled. "I was kind of hoping the alarm would go off. I've been at the tower all weekend and not so much as a bank robbery."

A stunned silence filled the room.

Finally, Beast Boy broke it. "Dude, did you just say you wanted a crime to happen so you could fight it? What's wrong with you?"

"I'm just glad we've not had a major crisis for a couple days," Cyborg said. "Wishing for a new crime is… crazy talk."

"But what's with all the _Boo-Yahs_ and the _Titans Go_ if you hate fighting crime so much?" Davis asked.

"It's complicated," Raven said, interrupting any chance for Cyborg or Beast Boy could answer. "But those of us who chose this life because it's fun rarely last more than a few weeks. Because though winning can be fun, it takes more than thrill-seeking to be a superhero. That's why I never wanted you on this team in the first place."

"Whoa, that's harsh, Raven," Beast Boy said. "He means well."

"Good intentions aren't enough," Raven said. "And I understand having an itchy trigger finger. The first time I had an honest-to-God chance to bring down my father, it was a thrill. But again, if you do this for the thrills, you won't last long."

"I'm not doing it for the thrills!" Yin shot back. "I'm just… eager to do something with my powers. Something other than show them to Robin and let him type things in that computer of his. I feel useless. I finally make the Titans and all I do is sit here all weekend."

"Make the Titans?" Beast Boy said, arching his eyebrow. "This isn't a cheerleading team, dude."

Cyborg shrugged. "BB has got a point. You are only on this team because Robin doesn't want you on the streets getting yourself killed."

Beast Boy walked over and handed Yin a controller. "The only lower reason I can think of for being on a team is like, a court order or something. No offense. I'm just saying, when the good times are here, you need to relax and enjoy them. Like me and Cyborg."

"Fighting crime is just our day job," Cyborg said. "At night, we're teenagers just like everyone else on the planet between 13 and 20."

Unfortunately, Cyborg's words were quickly proven an oversimplification; the Tower alarm immediately began blaring, and the signal from the Gamestation was cut out and replaced by a map of Jump City with a blinking light in the northwest side of town. Then live video feed appeared, where a shopping center was being terrorized by a young man with flaming red hair and an _F_ burnt into his threadbare shirt.

Yin blinked. "Looks like we're working overtime."

* * *

Flare had just got done roasting a hot dog… stand… when the Titans arrived. Their retaliation was surprisingly swift; none of the hesitation of Flare's first encounter with them. Their leader, the short wiry one in red and green, glared at Flare with an intense hatred, threw his finger skyward and shouted, "Titans, GO!"

And so the five—no, six… no… there were _seven _of them now—charged at Flare, determined to stop his rampage.

Just as Flare had planned.

Flare feigned backwards, then blasted forward, wreathing himself in flames as he slammed into the Titans; his foes scattered and spread apart. Now he just had to pick them apart one by one and then—

"OOF!" Flare's train of thought was cut short when a powerful burst of sonic energy slammed into his midsection and sent him careening into a nearby milk truck. Flare hit the vehicle hard, and bounced off, rolling on the ground and coming up firing. Two balls of fire arced out at Cyborg, and the mechanical teen dodged out of the way, even as Raven appeared where Cyborg had been.

"Azarath, Metrion…" she raised her hands.

At first it looked like nothing had happened… and then a loud metallic lurch caused Flare to glance over his shoulder and see that the truck he had just dented was now hovering above him, covered in Raven's dark energy.

"**ZINTHOS!"** Raven shouted; the truck smashed into Flare with enough force to stop a rampaging elephant, and Flare one again went airborne.

But this time, he hadn't been caught off guard, and immediately used an explosion of fire to right himself.

Nonetheless, the Titans were more formidable foes than he had remembered. He would have to be more careful; he needed a plan….

* * *

Robin charged towards the psychopath, smashing his staff into the ground and using it to pole-vault towards the pyrokinetic villain. Flare blasted Robin with a massive flame attack, and the Boy Wonder went sprawling onto the asphalt.

"Cyborg," Starfire said, flying up and making sure Robin was okay. "Call the department of red fire-extinguishing trucks, please! We need their assistance."

"I already called them," Cyborg spat. "Flare already disabled all the trucks!"

Ragnarök swore. "The guy's got foresight if nothing else."

"He _has_ something else." Raven's eyes glowed. "He has an incredible amount of raw power; and he's psychotic enough to use it in ways that make our job very difficult."

"And of course, I'm useless in this one," Davis said. "I can't fight a pyrokinetic—I start melting if I stay out on the beach too long."

"You can recoil like a rubber band, right?" Beast Boy said, smirking.

"Hm? Yeah." Davis raised an eyebrow.

"Then throw things at him, dude!"

"That will have to do for now," Raven said. "Just don't attack unless you're sure you can hit him, and try to stay out of the way."

"Titans go!" Starfire cried, helping Robin to his feet. The Tamaranian princess blasted off, hurling starbolts at Flare with all her might. But the pyrokinetic dodged them with surprising grace and returned fire, forcing Starfire to fall back.

Cyborg got a bit closer and took cover by a transfer truck before unloading with his sonic cannon, and Beast Boy transformed into a humming bird and flew up to a perch on a nearby high-rise apartment's flag pole in order to act as support.

Unfortunately, BB had taken his mind off the fight for too long and was nearly scorched when Flare slammed into the same flagpole and snapped it in two. He quickly flew away from Flare, but then transformed into a gorilla and smashed the pyrokinetic with both fists..

Flare slammed into the ground hard and rolled away from the impact site, melting the asphalt of the road as he moved; he punched into Cyborg's gut, denting the metal and staggering the mechanical teen. Robin tried to compensate for Cyborg's injury by distracting Flare. He charged forward, his birdarang sword blazing. Robin through the air in what seemed like wild, random motion to Flare—but Robin made every movement with the utmost care, making sure he didn't deliver a fatal wound to his enemy. Crazy as Flare was, Robin wasn't ready to cross the line and authorize lethal force just yet.

And so, a few nicks and cuts turned Flare's annoyance and distraction into anger, and the teen was suddenly wreathed in fire; the force of the explosion blew Robin clear, but his exposed skin began stinging and the hair on his arm was singed off.

Raven landed beside him and used her power to heal him as best she could. "He's not as powerful as he was the first time, but I can feel him getting stronger with each minute."

"And we've got no easy access to water to douse him with…"

Raven closed her eyes briefly. "There are water mains below the street here. I can break them open."

"Do it," Robin ordered, then ran off to get Flare's attention again.

Currently, said attention was held by Ragnarök, who was strafing their adversary on earthen stilts that let him move faster than normal running. But it still wasn't fast enough to avoid all of Flare's shots. Ragnarök was hit in the chest by two or three of Flare's small fireballs and recoiled, hurling a flurry of rocks in retaliation.

Flare batted them out of the air with flaming whips and blasted towards Ragnarök who was sent skidding across the intersection by Flare's fist.

Beast Boy jumped on Flare's back as an orangutan and began trying to choke him, but Flare elbowed the ape in the solar plexus and threw him into a jewelry store… then hurled a massive fireball through the hole in the window.

But Robin finally got close enough to get Flare's attention and did so—by kicking him in the back of the head. Flare let out a grunt and staggered forward, shoulder-rolling onto his feet and blasting Robin in the chest with a fire blast. "I told you mortals are powerless against me!" Flare cried. "You didn't listen! You doused my divine flame with water pumped through your mortal weapons. No more!"

"You might want to rethink that," Raven hissed from behind him. Her eyes were aglow with white light and her hands were surrounded in dark energy. **_"AZARATH METRION ZINTHOS!"_**

The water line burst from the ground and its liquid contents spewed out towards Flare. But just as the water got within five feet of him…

**_KRAKABOOM!_**

An explosion of fire surrounded the teen, the massive wave of heat instantly evaporating the water and sending Raven careening into a stop sign. Her head slammed hard against the metal, and she fell unconscious.

* * *

Robin had similarly been blown clear of the area and up onto a building, but he had managed to land on his feet—and to see that Ragnarök hadn't fared so well. Rag was leaning against a billboard, breathing heavily. Worse, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire were nowhere to be seen.

The fireball had been bigger than Robin had realized, and the smell of burning filled his nostrils. Most of the intersection where the battle had largely taken place was scorched now, burn marks and melted objects everywhere.

Suddenly, a fast moving metallic disk slammed into Flare's back, and Robin looked down to see a green gorilla and Yin, the latter strung up between two street lights like a slingshot, firing manhole covers at their attacker. _Where did they even get those?_

Robin made his way down from the roof and drew a birdarang, then attached an ice disk to it. "Make sure none of those hit me," he called to Beast Boy.

"Will do," Yin answered for the massive green ape.

Robin muttered a curse as he jumped down onto the awning of the roof and then down onto the road itself, running past Beast Boy and Yin towards the fight. Starfire had come out of wherever Flare had blasted her and was now trading ranged attacks with the pyrokinetic madman. Starbolt slammed into fireball and exploded in the air, causing Flare to rethink his strategy and fly straight towards Starfire. But rather than being baited into his game of chicken, Starfire flew sideways and sliced across Flare's chest with a pair of eyebeams. Flare cried out and recoiled; Starfire hadn't used enough power to shatter bone, like she had when she'd severed Delirium's wrists, but she left a stripe of melted flesh across Hideo Kawabe's chest with her attack. Needless to say, Flare found it unpleasant.

"You truly must be a descendant of the gods to have wounded me!" came Flare's shrill voice. "I shall prove my worth to my father by destroying you utterly!"

"I am sorry, but I know nothing of your father or the gods you believe yourself to be a descendant of," Starfire said. "You are a truly bad, crazy man who I wish to knock out now."

"_SHORYKUEN!_" Flare cried; fire surrounded him and he delivered a massive blow to Starfire. The Tamaranian princess tried to block, but even with her guard up, Flare's attack sent her flying across the city. She slammed into the distant pond in Jump City Park and did not come up out of the water.

"STARFIRE!" Cyborg cried, when he saw the attack connect. Robin's voice crackled over his arm communicator.

"You go after her, Vic. You'll cover the ground faster. And after what he just did… Flare is mine!"

Robin hurled himself at Flare, now the only Titan there; Rag, Raven, and Starfire were down for the count, Cyborg was busy, Yin was tied up—literally—and Beast Boy was looking for more projectiles to shoot. Apparently he found them, as Robin dodged a strike from Flare's fist only to watch another manhole cover hit Flare in the side. But this time, Flare didn't shrug it off—he retaliated. A fireball lanced out of his hand directly towards Yin and Beast Boy. Yin swung up and detached from the streetlights, and Beast Boy dived out of the way. And the fireball missed them.

Unfortunately, they'd opened the cover to the sewer system. And when the methane they'd unleashed and the fireball got together, the result was predictable.

**KRAKOOM!**

* * *

Robin gasped when he heard the rumble, and that was a split second after the bright white flash and the ball of smoke and fire filled his vision. He was almost distracted long enough to let Flare smack him across the face with a backhand, but he anticipated it at the last minute and was able to deflect the pyrokinetic's punch and reverse it into a shoulder throw that landed Flare in a puddle of water. The shirt he'd made from his own straightjacket soaked up some of the water, and Flare screamed as if it were burning him. "You fool!" he cried, lunging at the Boy Wonder. Robin rolled backwards with the lunge, hitting the ground hard on his back and kicking Flare over his shoulder 

And the two continued to fight, a flurry of fists and kicks; Robin was clearly the more skilled, but Flare's fire-talent more than made up for that mismatch..

And Robin was getting tired. He hadn't slept well since the battle in Miami and he was exhausted from the intensity of his battle with Flare. But with all the other Titans out of commission—or worse, he feared—he had no choice but to fight alone.

Flare smiled. "Once I have defeated you, warrior, my father will have no choice but to notice me!"

Or maybe not. Robin heard his com link crackle to life, so he stepped back into the puddle he'd thrown Flare into earlier and used his foot to splash water into his enemy's face. Flare cried out again, and Robin delivered a karate chop to his neck, hoping to put Flare down. But more importantly, he put as much distance as possible between himself and his enemy, and pulled out his communicator and answered the call…

"Robin here."

* * *

Heat and light had filled Yin's world, and then only darkness. For his second time since he'd started his hero work, he thought he was dead. Then he realized that he still felt heat and something on top of him. That something quickly shrunk into Beast Boy, who rolled over and helped Yin to his feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem. The ankylosaurus isn't my favorite dinosaur for nothing."

"Did you see Robin?" Yin asked.

"What about him?"

"He's getting tired. I can see it in the way he's throwing his punches. He won't last much longer against Flare if we don't do something."

"But how?" Beast Boy asked. "Every time we try to douse him with water he blasts it away."

"I know—I think that's why he hasn't just fried us all yet. He's conserving his power so that he can vaporize any water that comes his way."

"Then what do we do?"

Yin shrugged, and together they ran outside and watched Robin and Flare continue fighting. The two were a bit closer now, going at it. Occasionally Robin managed to get Flare a bit wet from a puddle nearby…

Which gave Yin and idea.

"What if we make sure he's not expecting the water that hits him?" Yin walked towards the middle of the street and cringed when the remaining heat from the earlier explosion slammed into him. "Wow, that's still unpleasant." Yin extended his neck and looked around the block, saw what he was looking for, and then retracted his neck down and looked at Beast Boy. "There's a Chevy Silverado around the corner over there. The keys are in the ignition, I think somebody just abandoned it."

"You want me to drive? I don't have a license yet!"

"You think I care?" Yin barked. "Just get in or this won't work."

"Hey, stop bossing me around, I outrank you."

Yin frowned and pulled out his communicator, and began buzzing Robin, who was still fighting. Robin kicked some more water into Flare's face, then managed to get away long enough to answer.

"_Robin here,"_ came his voice from the com link.

"Robin, it's Yin. Me and Beast Boy are okay."

_"How did you survive that?!"_

"Beast Boy turned into an ankle dinosaur and knocked me away from the blast. Listen, I've got a plan that I think will beat him. Just lead him south and keep him in front of the fire hydrant on the corner of Wolfman and Perez."

A grunt of acknowledgment came from Yin's communicator and the rubber Titan realized that it was all he would get now that the battle between Flare and Robin had picked up intensity again.

Yin ran over to the fire hydrant and extended his arm, making it thin and wrapping it around the nozzle of the hydrant as tightly as he could. And he extended the rest of his body as best he could around a streetlight on the corner of Wolfman and Main—and then through the cab of the Chevy. Beast Boy now occupied the truck's driver seat.

"When I tell you to, I want you to floor it," Yin shouted.

"What? I'll tear your arm off!"

"Better than Flare turning us all into charred metahuman remains," Yin reasoned.

"Dude, you're suicidal, reckless, and crazy. We're gonna get along great!"

* * *

Robin and Flare got ever closer, Robin getting weaker by the minute, and Flare less and less convinced of his need to hold back.

Robin barely dodged a huge stream of fire that lanced out and took down several cars on Perez Street, and Robin realized he was finally close to the hydrant.

At first he didn't even see anything unusual, until he saw that Yin's arm was wrapped tightly around the nozzle. _Which means…_ He followed the arm around the corner and saw Yin's head barely peaking around it. Yin's eyes widened, and that cued Robin into an incoming attack from Flare. It barely missed as Robin flipped away from it and kicked Flare in the face. The two began struggling, and Robin was getting closer and closer to being on the losing end…

* * *

"DRIVE!" Yin cried, his head suddenly beside Beast Boy in the cab of the truck. Yin reached down with his head and used his teeth to put the truck in Four-Wheel Drive.

The truck leapt forward and then stopped, stuck by the pulley that Yin's body had become. And pain, horrible searing pain spread throughout his arm muscles and his joints. But being roasted alive would be worse, and that thought allowed Yin to dig deep, grit his teeth. His eyes watered profusely, but he refused to let go until the nozzle was off.

* * *

Robin faintly heard the sound of tires screeching and saw Yin's arm stretching to its limit, but he could do nothing to help. A well placed punch from Flare knocked him on his rear and his body protested as he started to get up. 

He got up anyway. He got up and kicked Flare square in the chest. The villain staggered back towards the fire hydrant, and Robin realized that he now had Flare's full attention. Bad for him, but good for their chance of victory…

"You won't survive this!" Robin said. "It's an ice explosive disk!" He pulled out a normal incendiary explosive disk from his belt. He had no ice disks left, but Flare didn't know that. And he walked forward on shaky legs, holding the disk in a threatening manner towards Flare. "I'll blow it up now. Freeze us both. I'm prepared to die to take you out."

"Then you are a fool, mortal."

"You are just as mortal as I am, Kawabe!" Robin spat. "I know about you. How you lost your family. I know how it hurts—my family is dead too. But that doesn't mean you get to torch people alive."

"MY FAMILY IS THE THUNDER GOD HIMSELF!" Flare bellowed, his eyes spewing fire—literally.

Robin just bared his teeth and kept walking forward... _Hurry up, Yin!_

* * *

He smelled burning rubber and worried at first—then realized it was the truck tires. Then he felt heat on his hand and realized that Flare was indeed near him. He couldn't see how close—with his eyes closed and still leaking tears of pain, he couldn't see _anything. _But he felt the nozzle start to give, and even if Beast Boy couldn't hear him, he shouted for him to give it more gas…

And then, he felt a loud pop reverberate throughout his body; his arm became loose and he rocketed forward, slamming into the rear glass of the truck and falling unconscious…

* * *

**_KRACK! _**

Beast Boy gasped when he heard the noise—it sounded like Yin's arm had snapped in two! And when the truck blasted off straight ahead, he realized he was going so fast he had absolutely no control over it. He jerked the wheel hard right and slammed on the breaks, crashing into a Mustang and coming to a violent stop..

* * *

Robin saw the nozzle fly off the hydrant and saw the liquid pour out. He dived out of the way at the last second and still got rained upon as he lay on the ground. But Flare? Flare got hit right in the back by a torrent. The water exploded out of the hydrant and slammed into him, washing over the insane pyromaniac and sending him sprawling forward onto his face. 

Robin crawled over to him and bound their enemy with his trademark bat-cuffs.

Then he turned over and pulled out his com link again. "Congratulations, Yin…"

Beast Boy heard the message from Robin, and didn't have the heart to tell their leader Yin was still out. But he'd relay the message when the newest Teen Titan woke up. 

_"—Your initiation,"_ Robin said, _"is complete."_

* * *

** Author's Note: **Sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter out. I had to trudge through it. My mind is on other things right now. No promises on when I'll start the next arc, but I do promise to get it out once I've begun in a more timely manner. See you then!_  
_


	21. Blight: Collision Course

**Chapter Twenty-One  
Blight: Collision Course **

A familiar rhythm echoed through the narrow steel-and-brick canyon of a Jump City street. It was a cacophony that Robin had heard many times before: screams of pedestrians, screeching car tires, brakes being hastily administered. In the distance the Boy Wonder heard metal crashing against metal as two cars collided, and then four, then six. The entire area around Jump City's Haney Park was in a state of chaos.

That's typically what happened when a massive Lovecraftian entity was tearing through buildings and their occupants on an otherwise ordinary Sunday afternoon.

Dread Cthulhu, the most feared and ancient of the Old Ones, had been unleashed in the city. And he was _really_ pissed off.

Robin hurled himself from a higher rooftop to a lower one, tossing a bunch of explosive disks at the creature as he reached the apex of his jump, then following up with a birdarang. The birdarang whirled out and smashed into the disks, causing an explosion that tore through Cthulhu's leg. But just as soon as the tear had formed, the wound healed, Cthulhu barely stumbling.

It just looked up, glaring at Robin with its terrible eyes.

It was said the stare would cause madness. Robin didn't flinch. Instead he waited for the beast to smash him with his massive arm. Robin jumped out of the way as the arm of Cthulhu slammed down into the rooftop, then jumped again, landing on the immaterial appendage and running up until he reached Cthulhu's massive tentacle-covered face.

Robin executed a perfect spin kick right into the monster's head—and found his foot drive deep into the Old One's ethereal flesh.

Robin struggled, his leg becoming numb as it sank deeper and deeper into the ether.

He looked up and smiled when a flurry of green beams slammed into the being's face. Starfire swooped down and extended a gold-skinned hand. She flew up, pulling Robin out, and then hurling a starbolt down into Cthulhu's head.

The monster generally seemed unfazed and looked up to fire a beam of dark energy from its eyes. Starfire flew to the side, the spiral of energy blasting to her right by mere feet.

"Robin, will you please explain to me what these Ones of Old are and why Raven began consulting her ancient tomes as soon as we saw this?"

Robin sighed. "It's some sort of ancient magic being. This guy called H.P. Lovecraft wrote several volumes about them in the early part of the last century, but I never thought they were_ real_."

"It appears that your supposition was incorrect." Starfire dodged another vortex of energy from Cthulhu's eyes, clutching Robin all the more tightly; he thought his ribs were about to crack. She swooped down towards the monster again, peppering it with starbolts.

And again, they had little effect.

* * *

Tiny chunks of asphalt blasted into Ragnarök's face, and he dove out of the way as the brunt of the shockwave tore through the street. Rag rolled over, lifting a series of stones out of the ground and hurling them at Cthulhu. Like Robin's leg, they all sank into his flesh, doing seemingly no damage. 

He glanced back at Yin and Beast Boy, who were supposed to be his back-up, and gawked when he saw what they were doing.

Yin seemed to be stringing himself up between two streetlights on opposite sides of the street, and flipping his body head-over-rear several times, as if to increase tension. Beast Boy, on the other hand, had grabbed a manhole cover and was carrying it over towards Yin.

Beast Boy turned and waved at Ragnarök. "Hey, Rag, get over here! I could use your help with this!"

Rag frowned. What idiotic scheme were those two up to now? He darted over towards them, dodging the clutter and debris that Cthulhu's rampage had caused, and walked along side Beast Boy. "What's going on?" he asked, grabbing one end of the manhole cover to help carry it.

"We're gonna use Yin here as a slingshot!" Beast Boy announced. "Drive this manhole-cover directly into that Zoidberg-wanabe's brain."

Rag couldn't help but shrug. It made about as much since as any other available method of trying to kill the thing. Beast Boy and Rag moved their projectile into place, and Rag turned up the strength enhancement function of his Tamaranean armor. He flipped it over and pushed the manhole cover against Yin's belly; Beast Boy ran around behind and transformed into a gorilla, pulling backward.

Yin's super-tense limbs began stretching, while the young hero gritted his teeth in pain. "Why does it seem like every… AUGH!... time me and Beast Boy come up with creative uses for my powers it… ARUGHG!!!... always involves me in a lot of pain?"

Gorilla Beast Boy just grunted, then motioned for Rag to drop down.

Rag complied, falling down as quickly as possible; a split second later, Beast Boy let go and the manhole cover went sailing through air…

And chopped off one of Cthulhu's facial tentacles.

Yin, on the other hand, screamed bloody murder as all the tension he'd built up in his limbs was suddenly released and he went spinning end-over-end until his arms and legs were no longer twisted together like a twizzler.

Rag stifled a chuckle, but that chuckle became a gasp when he felt the energy of Cthulhu's stare bearing down on his back.

Beast Boy resumed his human form and Rag turned to stare the towering behemoth Old One in the eyes.

"I don't get it," said Beast Boy. "I thought just looking at this guy was supposed to drive you crazy."

"Well given the amount of craziness we deal with on a weekly basis, what're a guy's eyes gonna do?" Rag suggested. He glanced up at Yin.

And found his theory proven rather accurate, as Yin looked vacant eyed and was babbling incoherently about the power of the Old Ones.

"Well, except Davis," Rag sighed. "He's a bit new at this."

A deep gurgling sigh escaped Cthulhu's tentacled lips, and then he spoke. His words came out in a language as old as the stars themselves. It will be translated into the rough equivalent in English for your convenience.

"You know, this really isn't any fun if you're not going to at least pretend to be scared of me," said the monster. "Seriously."

Hey, I said _rough,_ didn't I?

"And with that bit of randomness," babbled the insane Yin, "we'll cut to Cyborg and Raven's scene."

* * *

In the middle of Haney Park, Raven used her telekinesis to flip through scattered scrolls and books so old the pages were almost completely yellow, being incredibly careful not to damage or destroy them. The dusty tomes of magic were strewed all over the concrete walkway around the fountain at the heart of the park.

Cyborg glanced back. "How much longer is this gonna take, Rae?"

"I don't _know_." Raven hurled the book she was flipping through aside, the tome falling to pieces as it hit the concrete, and grabbed another. "I didn't really have time to sort through these—I could only keep the portal to Malchior's library open for a few seconds. I just grabbed everything I saw on the Old Ones."

Cyborg looked up to see Cthulhu's wings spread out as he stalked towards the park, growing ever closer to the pair of Titans there.

"Why is he coming for us?" Cyborg asked, readying his sonic cannon.

"He's probably after me. Magic users attract magic beings more often than not. I'm a bit of both." Raven thumbed through her final tome, flipping dusty page after dusty page until finally she found what she was looking for: a crude ink drawing of the massive squid-faced entity—and below it, the words KILL SPELL written in ancient Sumerian.

"You ready?" Cyborg asked. "He's on top of us now!"

Raven glanced up and gasped at how close Cthulhu was. "Hold him off, I have to ready the spell."

Cyborg grimaced and hurled himself at the monster, firing a series of sonic cannon shots that seemed to soak into the monster as though passing through air.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Cthulhu complained. "I mean, honestly. After ten billion years of imprisonment you'd think someone would be ready to stop me."

Vic growled, activating all his rockets and launching them at the entity's face. The explosions staggered him. Cyborg threw a glance over his shoulder and hoped it would buy Raven some time.

"See, that's more like it, yeah." Cthulhu said. "Though still not quite the level the Outer Gods used to dish out. If you don't do better…." he paused. "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to rot off your flesh and consume your soul slowly over the next thousand years or so. Nothing personal, it's just my shtick. You know how it is."

Raven glanced up. "Not much longer," she whispered.

She held out her hands, forming a ball of magic light between them. "_Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos. Zefaran Cthulhu Pargon. Dnes mih kcab ot lleh pargon ZERIPHOR_!"

The white light in her hands flashed, morphing into a sphere of golden energy. "It's done. Cyborg!"

Vic turned, gritting his teeth. "Alright, then, let's end this."

"Take it," Raven shouted. "Catch!"

She tossed the golden ball, and Cyborg reached out with his right hand and caught it. Immediately the arm began transforming, morphing into the sonic cannon. Except now, the parts that normally shone with blue light glowed as golden as the energy ball itself.

"What the heck--?"

"It's an upgrade," Raven said. "You have to use the spell in conjunction with a weapon. Hurry up, it's not permanent."

"Where should I target?" he asked.

Cthulhu yawned.

"Head or the heart," Raven answered. "Very few magic beings can survive destruction of the heart or brain no matter how resilient they are otherwise."

Cyborg nodded, and Raven took off, flying away from Cthulhu.

"Oh, so you're _Trigon_'s daughter," Cthulhu said, sounding slightly less bored than before. "You should make a tasty snack. Yum. How's your old man doing, by the way? Still the same party animal he was way back when?"

"He's a bit dead at the moment," Raven said softly.

Vic, on the other hand, ran West, leaping atop a nearby building and then to another taller building until he was nearly level with Cthulhu's head.

"Yo, squid face!" he shouted. "Is this enough **fun** for you?"

A brilliant golden beam exploded from Cy's cannon arm, arcing through the sky and slamming into Cthulhu's head. Immediately the creature flashed red, spasming as the light tore through his brain.

"Oh, drat," Cthulhu said, still as bored as before. "It looks like I've had my brain perforated. Next time Gadget. Next time."

Cthulhu's body fell back and crashed into Haney Park, disintegrating into an all-consuming sludge that covered everything, tainting the water in the fountain and coating the trees and grass and everything else.

Nonetheless, the Dread Cthulhu was dead.

"Boo-Yah," said Cyborg, the light fading from his weapon.

* * *

Hours later, the Titans gathered in the kitchen and ops room, take out Chinese food containers strewn across the tables and counters as the Titans ate their fill. 

"That was incredible," Beast Boy shouted. "Cyborg just stood there and blew the thing's brains out! He's like Samuel L. Jackson, only half robot."

Cyborg shrugged. "I got tired of that muthafishing squid in my muthafishing park."

Yin blinked. "Mutha… fishing? What do you mean by that?"

Robin gave an almost imperceptible smirk as Cyborg harrumphed.

"Blasted censors. Chaltab still hasn't turned them off."

"It's a T-Rated fic," Robin explained.

"Personally, I find Cyborg's mandatory use of the genus _icthius _in the place of Earth obscenities quite adorable."

"Yeah, you would, Star." Cyborg threw his head back, and began popping the cybernetically-enhanced bones in his neck. "Anyway, who's up for a game of Mangler Brothers?"

"Me! Me!" Beast Boy cried. "I'm taking you down this time, Cy!"

"Not if I take you down first!"

"I'll referee," Rag volunteered, finding a seat on the couch between the two older Titans.

The half-robotic teen and Beast Boy began a typical trash-talking session as they activated the Gamestation, and Yin looked away from them towards Raven. The sorceress took another bite of her meal and sat back, obviously distressed.

Yin stretched across the room, then slinked down onto the floor next to Raven's easy chair.

"What's going on? You look upset."

Raven sighed. "It's nothing, Davis. I'm tired from the spell."

"I guess. Actually, there's something I've been wondering." Yin recoiled slightly in case Raven grew angry from the prodding. When her face remained impassive he continued.

"Cthulhu is from another dimension, right? Does that mean he's from a parallel Earth where everyone's a giant winged monster with a squid-face?"

He studied Raven's face, and saw the corner of her lip twist up in a smile briefly.

"Not quite," Raven said. "Ragnarök is from a parallel universe, but Cthulhu is from another dimension. It's a distinction that's often lost in movies designed for the lowest common denominator, but it is important. Cthulhu and many other powerful beings like him are from this universe, but reside in a dimensional plane higher—or sometimes lower—than that of Earth. That's where Azarath was, and where Trigon was imprisoned until this year."

"Azarath was your home planet, right?" Yin had heard the other Titans talking about it before, but had never really got the whole picture.

"It's not a planet," she explained. "It's a city. It occupies the same space as Jump City, but in a spiritual realm." Raven leaned forward and put her food down on the table in front of her. "Why are you suddenly so interested in where I came from?"

Yin looked away. "I heard Robin mention that Azarath was destroyed by Trigon. All of its people were killed."

Raven nodded, a well of pain hidden behind her eyes that she clearly wanted to release. Yin briefly wondered if he should keep on going, but then he realized that his words could help negate some of that pain—possibly.

"I was just thinking, if you could leave Azarath and come to Earth, who says more people didn't leave Azarath before Trigon attacked? I mean is that possible?"

Raven sat back and nodded slowly. "I suppose it is," she said. "But it isn't as simple as getting in a car or teleporting in between two points in one dimension. It would require a lot of magical energy, and few people in Azarath would have had enough."

"Oh. But there may still be some survivors out there? What if there was a portal, something more than one person could use?" Yin smiled, trying to give her a 'look at me, I'm hopeful' face. Raven didn't seem affected.

"It's a long shot…. Unless…"

Raven stood up, and Yin followed. Her face had changed—instead of tired and sad, Raven looked determined and focused. "There may be something," she said. Her eyes glowed white, and black energy covered her, and with that Raven vanished.

"Where did she go?" Yin asked, turning to Robin.

The Boy Wonder shrugged. "Probably to her room. What were you two talking about?"

Yin told him.

"It would be glorious if this were the case, if Raven could find more people from her home as I did after Tamaran was destroyed," said Starfire, hovering over to Yin and Robin. "But I fear that your words may send her in pursuit of the untamed fowl."

"Wild geese," Robin corrected. "And Star's right. Raven has become absorbed in her books before, and the last time it happened we were almost eaten by a dragon. I'll go talk to her to make sure she's not getting in over her head."

"I shall accompany you," Starfire said.

The two left, leaving Yin in the kitchen alone. "Great. Now who's going to take me home?" he thought aloud.

* * *

The tumult of the day was long forgotten by the time the figure slowly stalked down one of Jump City's many back-alleys. The slums were rife with the stenches of inner city life, of pollution and asphalt and poor hygiene. The figure's eyes pierced the night from beneath the hood of his large maroon cloak. It was a perfect night—a full moon provided plenty of light, and the December cool would take some of his enemies' edge away. 

They preferred the run down apartments, the less wealthy of the night-dwellers did. These buildings had been all but abandoned by their far-away landlords who had moved on to better, more profitable ventures. As long as the landlords got their rent, no questions would be asked. Their occupants preferred it that way. A trashcan fire burned as a group of the night-dwellers gathered around, warming their black blood in the heat of the fire.

Heads turned as they saw the figure.

"And who might you be," said one of them, raising a crowbar threateningly. "Strangers are off limits here."

The figure pulled the hood of his cloak back, revealing skin almost as pail as the moon and hair that was strikingly bright, only a tinge of blue lending to the idea that it was unnatural rather than the result of old age.

"Blight will do," said the figure.

The men gathered around the fire gasped. Instantly, they all knew that his cool night would be their final evening on Earth.

* * *

"And that," said Lydia Kensington, "is where we came from." She leaned back in her rocking chair and let her eyes readjust to the dimly light apartment. Not that dim light was a ever a real problem for her kind. She closed the old dusty book she had been reading.

A little girl looked up at her and smiled. Tiny fangs poked out beneath her upper lip.

"Tell me another story, Aunt Lydia," said the girl, eyes wide and flashing.. Yet somehow lifeless, dead. "Tell me the story of the Ultraviolet Blight. Does he really hunt us? Can he really… _kill _vampires?"

Lydia looked away. What nonsense was the girl's kin filling her brains with? Lydia thought a silent curse. Her sister certainly meant well, keeping the girl in the wealthy House Grant while House Kensington languished in poverty. But there was a streak of cruelty—even among the Enlightened—in the more wealthy houses. Concocting crazy stories of an invincible vampire hunter, one who could take on twenty vampires at once and defeat them all.

"Please, Aunt Lydia. Tell me the story. I've only heard rumors from the boys in my house. My mother said you would know more."

"Your mother speaks of nothing. There is no Blight." Lydia sat back. "I will tell you this tale only because it is fiction. You mustn't repeat it as fact, not to anyone."

"I won't!" the girl protested.

"Very well. They don't know who he is or where he comes from, the stories go. But he calls himself the Blight. He travels from city to city, finding Houses, invading our homes…" Lydia paused for dramatic effect. "And there he cuts us down one by one with a sword that shines like the sun and guns that fire bullets of silver. They say that if you ever see him, your only hope is to run for your life or beg for mercy. To attack him is certain death."

"But what if they all ganged up on him? Couldn't they beat him then?"

"Well, some say that not only does he have the sun in his sword, but that his very blood flows with its rays. That's why they call him the Ultraviolet Blight."

The little girl recoiled in horror. "But it's not true?"

"Of course not, dear. They're only stories."

* * *

The man with the crowbar attacked first, baring his fangs as he threw his body at the man named Blight. Blight leapt backwards, his hands whipping out from his cloak. Three silver throwing knives lashed out, slamming into Crowbar's chest. Black blood fell on the pavement and Crowbar collapsed to the ground, burning to dust as he fell.

"Emile!" cried one of the nearby vampires. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a short sword. "You will pay for that, monster!"

The vampire lunged towards Blight, slashing at him furiously with the short sword. Blight moved with superhuman speed, weaving in and out of the arc of the man's attack. But the vampire was faster, and the blade lashed across Blight's face. Red blood leaked out onto the vampires hand, and instantly the flesh began to burn.

The sword clattered to the ground.

"What devilry is this?" demanded the vampire.

"Not devilry. Science," answered Blight, and then lunged forward smashing his fist into the vampire's face, sending him flying back into the fire burning within the metal trashcan. Before the vampire could pull himself out, Blight's cloak hit the ground and his arm pointed straight out—now holding a handgun.

_**BLAM BLAM BLAM**_

Three shots rang out, and a second vampire joined Emile, his ashes mingling with those already in the garbage can. _A fitting end to his kind,_ thought Blight.

The shots drew more vampires, bursting from the windows and doors of the apartments, surrounding the few left in the courtyard and surrounding Blight himself. Blight counted twenty in his field of vision and could hear more behind him. _Finally. I've not had this much of a challenge since Tulsa,_ thought Blight.

The vampire hunter reached to his back, grabbing the hilt of a sword and pulling it from a long, ornate sheath. He held the stark white blade up, and many of the vampires recoiled and shielded their eyes—as though it burned merely to look at the sword.

"Let's see if you can do what none of your kind have managed to do before," Blight barked. "Let's see if you can kill me. I _defy _you allto try and kill me!"

Three of the younger vampires took his challenge instantly, grabbing makeshift weapons from their belts and running forward. Blight stepped back, elbowing one of the vampires behind him in the face and throwing his fat undead body into the other two. Blight jumped and landed atop a trashcan, crouching low as he scanned the three.

He dubbed the one on the left Moe; Moe held a metal baseball bat with barbed wire wrapped around it, his only notable clothing being black trousers and an Insane Clown Posse T-Shirt.

The one in the middle he dubbed Larry. Larry's hair was slicked back, and he was holding what appeared to be a makeshift garrote. He wore a shredded denim jacket.

The one on the right he dubbed Curly. Bald except for a thin spiked Mohawk, Curly was the largest of the three and was attacking with a massive frying pan. He was dressed in a white tank top almost the same color as his sickly-looking skin.

_All a bunch of rank amateurs,_ Blight decided from the way they moved.

He jumped down from the garbage can, and Moe swung his bat. Blight blocked it with his sword and stepped back. Curly swung the frying pan and Blight ducked, then lunged forward, poking Curly in the stomach with the tip of his blade. Fire erupted at the site of the wound, the skin charring to ash in seconds. Larry started punching and kicking wildly, and tried to get the garrote around Blight's neck.

Blight stepped back, slicing his sword across Larry's thighs. The vampire cried out and hissed in pain as he collapsed to the ground, the muscle burning to ash. The sword flashed upwards slicing the garrote in two, then cleaving into Larry's chin.

The vampire cried out again, his world becoming an undead hell as blade began turning his face to ash. "The sun itself is in this sword," Blight spat. "None of your kind can stand against it."

Blight stepped forward, kicking Larry hard enough to lift him up onto his feet and away from the sword. The vampire cradled his chin. Then Moe snarled, stepping forward and baring his fangs as he began swinging his bat at Blight in a wild flurry. Blight stepped back, unprepared for the attack, parrying the blows as fast as he could.

Blight's movements were almost as fast as the vampires, but Blight realized he wouldn't win in a contest of speed or strength. He stepped to the side, grazing the blade of his sword across Moe's stomach.

Ashes and embers spilled from the wound, a dull groan escaping Moe's lips; the pain was so great he couldn't muster anything else. Blight stepped back into a stronger stance and whirled his sword forward, slicing Moe in half.

Half his torso exploded into a fiery ball of ash and cinder, and Moe collapsed, snarling in rage and pain.

But he refused to give up, crawling with nothing but arm strength towards Blight, gurgling and spitting up black blood.

Blight twirled his sword, flipping it blade-down plunging the point into Moe's head. The rest of the vampire's body disintegrated.

Pain crackled through the back of Blight's head and he fell forward, his vision blacking out for a split second. He flipped himself over and looked up in time to see Curly coming at him with the frying pan. "You killed him! You killed him you piece off—"

The word was cut off with a choking noise as Blight's sword plunged into Curly's chest. Steaming hot black liquid began seeping from the vampire's mouth, the foul smell causing Blight to cringe. But soon it too caught fire as the vampire crumbled to ash, the sword's power burning him away from the inside out.

Blight stood up, all the vampires growling and shouting curses and insults to him. The vampire he called Larry glared at him his chin still cradled in his palm. "You're an animal," he hissed, the damage to his skull making speaking difficult. "A demon."

"I've been called far worse than that," Blight said. "Words haven't stopped me yet."

Two vampires ran forward from behind, slicing at Blight with old rusted machetes. He turned and parried the attacks, keeping his body away from them as he backed towards Larry. Both of the machetes attacked at once, and Blight simultaneously parried both attacks, then countered by dragging the blade through their wrists, severing both vampires' sword hands faster than a lightsaber through butter.

And in the same motion, Blight turned, plunging the blade into Larry's face, ending the vampire's misery for good.

"If this is the best you can do, you may as well let me slaughter you all," he said. "Who is next?"

The vampires looked at each other, then all drew their weapons. They cried out in anger—and some perverse form of brotherhood, Blight supposed—and attacked in unison, twenty men against Blight.

One by one, they all fell.

* * *

Davis Jefferson, his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, crept away from the T-Car, waving goodbye to Cyborg as he walked. He turned and faced his house. There was a light on in the living room window, so he knew at least one of his parents was awake. By the time he got to the door, he knew they both were.

Their voices, muffled by the door but still loud enough for him to make out words, hit Davis' ears as he stepped onto the doormat. He rang the bell, and the loud argument inside ceased momentarily. Footsteps moved closer, and the door swung open to reveal Davis' mother, her face red and eyes recently wet with tears.

"What's wrong, mom?" Davis asked.

"Nothing," Helen lied. "Your father and I were just disagreeing."

Davis stepped inside and threw his duffle bag down next to the fireplace. "Is this about me and the Titans?"

"No," Helen said, again obviously lying. "Don't worry about it, just go up to your room."

Davis fought back the tears that were welling up inside him has he made his way up the stairs. He didn't go to his room, though. He slinked down at the top of the stairs and listened.

"Why don't you tell him the truth, Helen?" his father demanded.

"What, Sam? What should I tell him? That you're angry at me for letting him live his dream?"

"His dream!" parroted Davis' father incredulously. "His dream? He's out there every weekend throwing himself against psychopaths and demons and monsters and God knows what else! He could get killed!"

"You think I don't know that? He's less likely," she began sobbing, "less likely to get killed when he's with the Titans than he is going out and doing this alone."

"He doesn't need to be going out and doing it alone either!" bellowed Sam. "Dammit, Helen, this isn't how you raise a child. He's fourteen years old."

"This isn't just about Davis, Samuel, and you know it." Davis winced. His mother's voice was low and gravely, and he hated to hear it. It reminded him of the drunk Loraine from the Alternate 1985 in _Back to the Future II, _when she was angry at Biff and sounded like she had rocks in he throat.

Any time his mother's voice got that way, she and his dad were about to have it out bad. Davis prepared himself mentally, going over some of the meditation techniques Raven had tried to teach him.

"What are you talking about?" Samuel spat.

Davis heard footsteps, and then his mother in that gravely drunk Loraine voice again. "This is about Nathaniel. You loved him almost as much as our son, and when he died—"

"Stop," demanded Samuel. "You're _not_ going to try and accuse me of using Nathan as an excuse for caring about the safety of my own son, dammit! What happened to Nathan has nothing to do this."

"Yes it does." More footsteps as Helen moved around him. "You blame me for encouraging Nathan to get into law enforcement. You blame me that he's dead, and now you have this.. this… _**phobia **_that you're going to lose Davis too."

Davis felt his face twist into a terrible grimace. His cousin Nathan had died a few years ago in the line of duty, and ever since then his father and mother hadn't been on the best terms. But this level of fighting was.. rare for them.

"Get out of my house," Samuel said. There was silence for a moment, and then he bellowed, "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE, HELEN. I'm not going to sit here and take this from you. You're not going to put words into my mouth."

"It's my house too," Helen hissed. "And as long as Davis is here I'm not leaving." Davis began to wonder if he should go do something to stop them. Wrap himself around one of them. The punches would just bounce off.

_Stop thinking like that,_ he scolded himself. _They're having a verbal fight. They're not going to hit each other. _

Davis waited, his heartbeat growing louder and louder in the silence. He breathed in and out more times than he could count, waiting for one of them to break the silence and start the argument again. He heard his father get of his chair after what seemed like five minutes, and dread welled up in the pit of his stomach.

"Fine then," Samuel said. "I'll go find a hotel to stay at tonight, if that's the way you want it."

"Sam!" Helen said, the gravely voice vanishing. "You can't do that. You've been drinking whiskey. You don't need to be driving!"

"We'll I'm sure as hell not staying here," his father shot back. Heavy footsteps, then the door slammed. A few minutes later Davis heard a car start outside and his father pull out of the drive way. He slumped back against the wall, the tension he'd felt during the fight finally being released.

The tears finally came.

And in the back of his mind, he heard a soft, convincing whisper:

_It's all your fault._

* * *

Lydia cringed as another terrible cry of pain erupted from a nearby room. She heard a loud thud as a body slammed into a wall, then the tell-tale burning of another resident of House Kensington as he disintegrated into so much ash. She slinked down in the corner, staring across at the entrance to the safe room.

She cradled her young niece, who shivered in her arms, not even breathing as the footsteps of their murderer loomed ever closer on the creaking floor of the old apartment building. The footsteps stopped, and Lydia felt her black heart pounding inside her chest. She realized that she had also stopped breathing.

Blight didn't stop breathing. At first, Lydia thought she was hearing him breathing faster for some reason… Then she realized he wasn't breathing—he was sniffing.

"Oh… no…" she whispered.

The door of the safe room, built to look like just another section of wall, exploded inward and broke in two, landing in pieces at her feet. Lydia quickly turned over and stood putting her body between Blight and her niece.

Blight smirked, pointing his sword at her. "This room was hidden well. Very skilled craftsmanship, whoever built it."

"You monster," Lydia hissed. "You come in here and slaughter us like animals for being different."

"You _are_ animals," said Blight softly. "Even those of you who call yourselves enlightened. I'm doing the world a favor by ridding it of your kind."

Lydia reached for the gun in her coat and finding it. She brought it level with Blight's chest and fired three shots, then two more, then emptied the clip, driving him back to the opposite wall. Blight gritted his teeth in pain, but didn't fall.

"Idiot." He stood upright, and pulled off his jacket.

Underneath, Lydia's eyes widened when she realized what he was wearing—a Kevlar vest, or at least something like Kevlar. It was completely transparent except on the part visible through Blight's now-tattered, unbuttoned coat.

"You should have aimed at my head," said Blight. He lunged forward, and the sword plunged into Lydia's chest. She felt a burning sensation shoot up her body, the pain overwhelming her mind as her body began to disintegrate.

And then, darkness.

* * *

The little girl shrieked in horror as the female vampire burned and crumbled into ashes, tears of terror streaming from her face.

Blight bit his lip, forcing any compassion he might have out of his heart and mind. He dropped his sword and reached out. The girl hissed, jumping up and sinking her fangs into his hand. Blight recoiled from the pain, but the blood she drew entered her fangs causing the girl to recoil a well. The solar energy inside caused the fangs of the young vampire to rot from the inside out, and she began coughing and spitting up ash.

"There we go," said Blight. "With your fangs gone, you're no threat. I'll let you live."

He wasn't being foolish or sentimental—when vampires were young, they couldn't risk losing their fangs, or else they wouldn't grow back. By letting a younger vampire bite him, he avoided having to slaughter them.

Once they reached adulthood, however, there was only one way to deal with them.

"You killed them all," the girl sobbed.

Blight nodded. "Your kind is a blight on humanity; that's why I became a Blight on them." He reached out and picked the girl up with his left hand grabbing her by the collar and lifting her with just one arm.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'm going to mark you as defanged. If I ever encounter you again, I won't destroy you unless you attack me."

He flicked his wrist, and a gauntlet concealed by his coat deployed a pair of blades, two-claw like weapons he could use in a tight spot.

As he brought the blades near the girl's face, she inhaled, and began twitching. "Relax," commanded Blight. "It's coated in garlic, but this house is immune to garlic."

But the girl kept twitching, and a thought clicked in the back of his mind. He reached forward and held the side of the blade to the girl's face. She squealed almost silently as the flesh began to burn, acrid smoke rising from the side. He pulled the blade away.

"You're not from this house!" he realized out loud. "You must be from one of the others. _Grant_. Grant is the only Enlightened house in this area weak to garlic."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a steel knife, not coated in Garlic, and carved his mark into the girl's face, then threw her down near the exit to the safe room.

"Listen to me, girl. The night is still young and the moon is full. Go back to House Grant. Tell them what you saw here tonight. Tell them how I slaughtered all of their cousins."

The little girl shivered as she crawled backwards to get away from him.

Blight picked up his sword. "And tell them… I'm coming for _them_ next."

* * *

The smell of waffles wafted in from the kitchen as Raven hovered through the automatic doors. Starfire and Beast Boy were pigging out, while Cyborg was helping himself to some more. Robin, apparently already full, was washing the dishes. Ragnarok was lying on the couch cradling his stomach.

Raven scanned the room and saw an open jar of Zorka-Jam and understood why Collin was in so much pain.

Raven took a small plate of waffles and found a seat at the table.

"Morning, Rae!" Beast Boy said. "How are you doing this fine December day?"

"If you think your going to get a Christmas gift out of me, think again," Raven said.

"Awe, come on, Rae. I wasn't trying to kiss up to you so that you'd get me Mega Smash Monkeys Fracas or anything!"

"Sure you weren't," Raven said as she started to eat.

"Honest!"

Raven frowned. She might as well say it now. "Listen guys, after what happened yesterday…"

"You mean the big squid monster? Cyborg totally blew his brains out."

Starfire leaned forward. "Yes, Beast Boy, you have told us at least twenty-seven times of the wits being forcibly removed from the Cthulhu's head by Cyborg. We are aware of the events that transpired. May we please discuss something less violent?"

"Sorry." Beast Boy finished his last waffle and carried his plate into the kitchen.

"As I was saying," Raven began. "I want to request permission to take a leave of absence from the Titans. I want to see if I can find any survivors from Azarath. Last night I discovered something in one of my magic books that leads me to think some people could have escaped. And I need to go look. Otherwise I'll never have closure."

"What!?" Cyborg blurted. "You're leaving us? But what if some big magical crisis thingy pops up? Or what if Robin is accused of murder by time travelers in a few weeks and we need you here to jam the time stream and prevent the time travelers from leaving and putting asbestos in our cribs or something!"

"That was an peculiarly explicit objection," Starfire observed.

Raven looked around and could see the protests of the other Titans forming on their lips, and opened her mouth to counter them. "I'll check in every week," she said. "And I'll make sure I'm here for Christmas. But I need to do this."

"I was afraid of this," Robin said. "I know you'd stay if I gave you an order to do so, but I won't. I will make this leave conditional, though."

"What's that?" Raven asked, suddenly perplexed.

"The Titans East recently got in a scuffle with some piano-themed assassin. Mas y Menos got their knee caps blown out. Speedy got his arm broken. I want you to go heal them up as best as you can before you leave. The way Bumblebee was talking, I'm afraid things in Steel City are going to get worse before they get better."

Raven blinked. "Hm. I can do that," she said.

And so, it was decided that the next few weeks would only see Raven at the Tower sporadically.

The Titans had no idea how unfortuitous the timing of her journey would turn out to be.

* * *

Bob and George had never really been the smartest guys. That was probably why the ended up as security goons, guarding some high-tech laser weapon that Star Labs Jump City had requested shipped in from Star Labs Tokyo.

George thought the idea of transporting a laser was the bee's knees.

Bob didn't really care. It was just a paycheck.

Both of them were very large men, and very good at their job. Star Labs had provided them both with plasma riffles that they could use to guard the weapon.

Both men were immediately on alert when a large flat speedboat whirled up beside the ship the laser was on. They heard shouts of confusion from the rest of the crew, and then nothing. The speed boat's noise vanished too, out of sight.

Half an hour passed and Bob and George mostly forgot about the speed boat. They didn't think anything of it when the captain walked by along with one of the Star scientists. Of course, they thought something of it when they were both shot in the back with the captain's revolver, but by the time they realized what had happened, they were already dead.

* * *

The 'scientist' smiled broadly, and pulled off the lab coat and glasses. Underneath, she wore only black from head to toe. The jumpsuit did little to hide her figure. The captain, his vacant eyes the result of being in her thrall, followed her into the room where the laser was kept.

"Load this into my ship," she ordered him. The Captain nodded, picking up the massive laser and hoisting it over his head.

The woman bared her fangs and sank them into the flesh of Bob and George as she and the captain exited the cargo hold.

The two security guards rose, vacant-eyed, and aided the captain in carrying the laser. Their souls gone and their bodies were slaves to the woman's will, now. They couldn't resist.

Soon, the woman thought, mistakes would be erased. The flaws she had instilled in her offspring would be gone forever. Vampires would stand in the sun defiantly.

And then, humanity would fall.


	22. Blight: Who Rules The Night?

**Chapter Twenty-Two  
**

Empty food containers and garbage were scattered all over the apartment floor, lending an air of sloppiness to the otherwise well-maintained suite. Its occupant didn't really care. The room was just a resting place, a day-time refuge from the night dwellers. Gotham City had the Grand Central, New York had the Plaza—Jump City's most famous hotel was the Grand Leap. It wasn't quite as luxurious as some of the more famous hotels, but it didn't need to be.

Blight stood out on the balcony, his skin still moist from just getting out of the shower. He dropped his robe and stood on the balcony clad only in his boxers. Next to him on a balcony table, his scabbard rested. He removed it, running his fingers along the runes carved into its stark white surface, and whispered an incantation in Latin.

Immediately the blade began glowing and he let it go. But the sword didn't fall—instead it began to hover, orienting so that the blade was pointing directly up and the edge aligned directly with the sun. Light from the sun seemed to curve around the sword and enter its glowing white blade.

Blight allowed himself a smile in satisfaction, then moved to the edge of the balcony and climbed atop the rail. His balance was perfect; he wouldn't fall off. His muscles tensed, and yet relaxed at the same time, his mind swimming into murkiness—his meditation state. It would last until nightfall.

And then, he would go out and hunt once again.

* * *

A beam of brilliant energy struck the top of Titans Tower and coalesced into the form of a young woman in a blue cloak. Raven pulled her hood back and looked around at the rest of the Titans. Robin watched her from across the Tower, but Beast Boy was the first to reach her side.

"We got it all set up, Rae," he said hugging her. "The teleporty sandy-stuff is spread out just like you asked for."

"Thanks," she said, frowning at the changeling's embrace. "You did it just as the book said, right?"

Beast Boy looked perplexed, and then realized that Raven was speaking to Robin and not to him.

"I watched them," Robin said with the ghost of a smile. "Everything is in order." Robin paused for a moment, and then looked away, off at some seagulls flying around by the beach, the waves, crashing on the shoreline. A chilly wind blew by, and Robin felt himself shiver a bit. He turned back to Raven.

"Watch yourself, okay. Be careful."

"Of course," Raven said. "Doctor Fate allowed me to borrow some equipment to make this excursion a bit easier."

Starfire smiled and hovered over and took both of Raven's hands in hers, then began reciting something in comprehensible in Tamaranean. She had told Robin that it was a traditional Tamaranean 'not-farewell' often given before two siblings parted for a battle—a promise that they'd see each other again.

Robin watched Raven step around the circle, making sure not to disrupt any of the sand. She reached out and used her telekinesis to replace some of the sand that had been disturbed by the wind.

At that point, Robin heard the door to the inside of the tower burst open, and Cyborg and Ragnarök both emerged from the door, carrying an enormous plate.

Stacked three feet high…

With waffles.

"Raven," began Cyborg, "since we knew you were going away for a bit, we made you these as your last meal on Earth… Before you get back."

Rag smiled broadly. "Cyborg told me you love waffles more than life itself, so I helped out."

"Did he now?" Raven asked, arching an eyebrow at the half-metallic teen. "I must be the luckiest girl on Earth."

* * *

Waffles eaten and items packed in Raven's bag, the Titans awaited to see her off. 

"Can we watch?" Beast Boy asked.

"As long as you stand back and don't break the sand circle or touch the candles. Bad things can happen if the circle is broken mid-spell." Raven sat in the middle of the circle, and opened herself up to the mystical energies flowing through her blood.

She inhaled and began to chant. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos...Carazon Rakashas Endere...Vaserix Endrien Azarath..._Azarath__**, AZARATH**_"

Her eyes flashed white and a brilliant beam of light shot straight up into the clouds above, which began to swirl into a vortex of energy. Raven ascended upwards, through the portal in the clouds, vanishing into the maelstrom. The light faded and blue flames danced across the sand.

Thunder crashed, and the spell dissipated, leaving only five Teen Titans left on the roof.

* * *

No sooner had Robin settled into his chair in Ops for some computer work—especially tracking down the resurrected Slade—then the line to the Jump City police department opened up and a familiar face appeared on the screen.

"What is it, Detective Simmons?" Robin asked.

The woman on the screen was somber, brown hair tied back and stress visible on the crease in her forehead. "Robin. Bad news, I'm afraid. We've had a mass disappearance down in the south side of town. There's quite a bit of blood, so we may be dealing with a mass homicide. There are ashes everywhere. I think…"

Robin saw the detective's face twitch in disgust.

She sighed. "I think we might be dealing with a supercriminal who vaporizes his victims."

Robin nodded, getting up from his computer chair and signaling for the remaining Titans to assemble. "We'll be on it," he said.

* * *

By the time the T-Car arrived at the apartments, the entire street was crawling with detectives. Robin was immediately struck by how dilapidated the buildings looked on the outside. They were quickly shuffled to the center of the courtyard between the four adjacent buildings—if it could be called a courtyard—where officers milled about and the commissioner of the JCPD stood with Detective Simmons.

The rest of the Titans followed Robin up to the middle, where a trashcan filled with the remnants of a blaze could be scene. Robin goggled when he realized that there was a pair of boots with ashes coming out of them lying next to the garbage can.

"I'm afraid it's like this all over the place," the commissioner said. "Simmons, it's your case. I have business to attend to back at the precinct."

Simmons nodded and the commissioner walked off. She then turned and led the Titans into one of the buildings. "I'm going to let you investigate everything with police supervision. We've collected blood samples for you and everything. There's one room in particular that I really think you need to see."

Robin stopped. "I'd like to look around outside a bit more, if you don't mind," he said. "Cyborg, Ragnarök, go with Detective Simmons. Starfire, Beast Boy, you're with me."

Robin waited till the two technologically-inclined Titans left before returning to the center.

"Beast Boy, see if you can find anything as a blood hound," he said… "I'm beginning to think that—"

"Dude!" Beast Boy shouted. "Why are you being so dense, Robin? It's obviously vampires!"

Starfire arched an eyebrow. "Some sort of construct designed for the cremation of outmoded vehicular transports?"

"Not van pyres," Robin said. "Vampires. They're mythological creatures that drink the blood of helpless victims in order to survive. Supposedly undead."

"Oh, of course! Like the Buffy television program in which unlikable characters 'trade the quips'." Starfire beamed. "I had become convinced that they were merely fictional."

"They _are._" Robin said, glaring at Beast Boy. He bent down and picked up a grey chunk of something—and realized that it was the remains of a human arm. "Vampires don't exist."

"Didn't people say that about werewolves until Batman beat one up?"

Robin shot Beast Boy the 'silence mortal' look—not quite as effective as Raven's version, but still impressive.

"I was being serious," Beast Boy whined. "How else do you explain a bunch of people crumbling into ashes?"

"A murderer with a plasma cannon," Robin said. "Darkseid's omega beams. There are hundreds of other ways this crime can be explained."

Beast Boy was persistent. "Or it was vampires!" He glanced at Starfire. "Ooh, I know a way to test this out! Robin, hold out that severed arm. And Starfire, make a low-level eye-beam."

The two looked at Beast Boy and shrugged.

* * *

Detective Simmons opened the door to the room, and Ragnarök felt his heart leapt into his chest and his stomach turn sour with nausea. All around the room, corpses lay scattered, perhaps ten or twelve, sprawled out as if blown back with incredible force.

Except they weren't corpses—they weren't human bodies at all, but piles of ash wrapped in human clothing. Collin couldn't even put a finger on why, but it sent a chill up his spine.

"What happened here?" Cyborg asked, his voice betraying his complete bafflement.

"We were hoping you could tell us. Can you check for radiation? Anything that might have caused this?"

Cyborg shrugged, and pressed a button on the side of his mechanical eye. "Hm… I don't see anything. No radiation at all."

"It's there," Rag said. He had turned on his visor and scanned too, but he was picking up significant radiation all over the room. "All of it has wavelengths of about 200-300 nanometers. That would be ultra-violet, right?"

Cyborg smacked himself in the head. "I'm off my game. My eye can't see in the low ultraviolet spectrum."

"So it's UV rays?" Regina Simmons asked. "Is there any danger here?"

"Not according to my visor," Rag said. "It's adapted to human physiology and usually warns me of danger, so I think we're safe. The radiation level is really weak."

"There's something weird about this, though," Cyborg said. "There's no way UV rays alone would have this effect on someone. But that's all you're getting, right?"

"Yeah." Rag looked around, scanning all the other spectrums he could think of. "Nothing out of the ordinary but the UV—great, now I'm getting pictures of blood suckers in my head."

Regina goggled. "You mean—? No, way, you can't be serious!"

"I wasn't," Rag said. "But at this point… it _is_ the most plausible explanation."

"Green jeans is right," Cyborg said. "There's probably a lot more here than meets the eye, but. I'm going to call Robin."

* * *

Beast Boy flinched as he held the severed limb out, looking away from it worriedly. Starfire hovered a bit back and focused her eyes—a tiny beam of energy arced out of her pupil and struck the hand.

**CRACK!**

The hand immediately flared up, erupting into a ball of fire and making the intact-bones shatter and burn as they fell to the ground.

Beast Boy glanced over at Robin. "Satisfied, Boy Wonder?"

* * *

Moments later, near the T-Car, Robin and the rest of the Titans gathered and began comparing notes on what their investigations inside the apartment and out had yielded, all of them seemed to have the same word on the tip if their tongues, but none of them wanted to come out and say it.

"So, let me get this straight," Cyborg said. "Starfire's eyebeams made the reaction happen, and nothing else did."

Robin shook his head. "It's a bit premature to rule _everything_ else out, but my laser cutter didn't have the same effect, so I think it is safe to say that Starfire's energy was what did it."

"And Starfire's energy," Beast Boy said, "comes from the sun."

"It's processed UV energy," Rag said. "She stores it in her cells and can unleash it at will, linked to her emotions. The frequency going in is a bit different when coming out, and there's also the obvious green light energy with it, but the bulk of the damage starbolts do is a combination of concussive force and ultra-violet burns. Eyebeams focus more on the burning than the concussing."

Robin looked around and began processing the situation, before he looked over at Cyborg. "And the room you found had a bunch of bodies turned to ashes, and the only radiation in the room was low-frequency Ultraviolet waves emanating from the ashes."

"It was coming from everything _but_ the ashes," Rag corrected. "As if the bodies of the victims absorbed it and used that energy to fuel the reaction that made them all… ashy. The clothes and walls were soaked in it, though. It would take a lot of energy to cause something like this. I mean a bomb or something."

Cyborg nodded. "And a very unique type of organism as the target—one I don't even think Beast Boy could transform into."

"Which then," Starfire began, "leads us all to the conclusion that we are engaging in commerce with…"

"'Dealing with', Star."

"..vampires?"

"Yup," Beast Boy said. "So. Who's going to tell the police?"

"We're not going to," Robin said, his voice low and emphatic. "We'll tell them we have a lead, but that that's all we can reveal at the time."

"There's going to be talk either way, man," said Cyborg. "Are you sure we should keep them in the dark?"

Robin nodded. "I'd rather have unsubstantiated police rumors than a confirmed statement from the Titans fueling public fear. After what happened with the Spectre, panic is the last thing we need."

"Then the real question is, what's the next step?" Ragnarök asked.

"Dude, isn't it obvious?" Beast Boy motioned toward the sun. "We wait for nightfall."

* * *

The last faint glimmers of the sun began retreating behind the vast rolling waters of the Pacific Ocean, and high on a hotel balcony, a sword fell blade-down and stabbed into the carpeted deck.

The Ultraviolet Blight's eyes snapped open, and he looked up at the rising moon. It was only half full, but it was shining brightly. It would be a perfect night for a hunt.

Blight pulled the sword out of the balcony and returned inside, the solar charge inside his body crackling through his veins and firing synapses in his brain he didn't even know existed. He should have tried the West Coast years ago!

Blight pulled on his clothing, his pants and undershirt, his transparent armored vest from the machine that repaired the damage. He pulled his weapons from their storage containers and strapped them on, one by one, his gauntlet last of all—then a spare coat, his scabbard, and the sword that shown with the rays of the sun. He slung it over his shoulder.

"House Grant will fall tonight," he whispered. "For the Order."

* * *

"The sun is setting, Robin," Beast Boy called. "We ready for this?"

"Don't get so excited, salad head," Cyborg called, making some adjustments to his sonic cannon. "Just because your skin is green doesn't mean your blood isn't a tasty treat to the vampires."

"Assuming they are vampires," Robin said. He snapped on an unusual silver utility belt, and Cyborg arched his biological eyebrow.

"Rob, is that garlic I smell on you?"

"And is that utility belt made of silver?" Rag asked, tapping a button on the side of his combat visor. "Wow. I forgot how rich Batman was."

"Forgive me," said Starfire, "but I cannot see the Batman as one who would prepare for such an… unusual circumstance."

Robin shrugged, pulling out a pair of garlic bombs, a small UV flashlight, and a wooden cross with the end sharpened like a stake. "Batman always told me to be ready for anything, but the True Master gave me a new adage."

"What's that?" Beast Boy asked.

"Be ready for anything—even the impossible."

* * *

A bloodcurdling scream rent the night and Blight descended from the rooftops, his cloak billowing in the cool December breeze.

Two men with black masks over their heads were holding a woman at knifepoint, her back against a wall. They were muttering inaudible treats to her, undoubtedly laced with the most profane things the human voice could utter.

"The Order would prefer I intervened," Blight thought aloud, but grudgingly. He felt he had more important things to take care of, but knew that he should keep his vows as well.

"You're really pretty, lady," one of the thugs said to the woman. Then he called her whore and waved his knife at her.

"Gentlemen," said Blight in a loud, terse tone from behind them, letting them know with his tone that he didn't think of them as gentlemen at all.

"Whooz dis guy?" one of the thugs asked, turning his knife on Blight.

The other thug turned, backing against the wall and using his body to press the scared woman so that she couldn't escape.

"Looks like one of them do-gooder heroes to me, but this guy's a wuss. Let's pulverize him and—"

Before the thug could finish his thought, Blight's sword lashed out and punctured his stomach, but not enough to go all the way through and touch the woman behind him. He then turned, jerking the sword out and severing the other man's head in one smooth motion.

He didn't even look at his handiwork, but rather turned to the woman he had just rescued. "They won't bother anyone now," Blight whispered. "You're free to go."

"Oh, thank you!" the woman cried, flashing him an open-mouth smile—a smile that revealed all too much. Anger flared in Blight's chest and he lunged forward, pressing the woman against the wall with his own body weight. If she realized the irony of the situation, she didn't show it.

"What the—" the girl stammered. Her skin.. so pale. And no fragrance. How had Blight not noticed it before…?

"Show me your teeth!" he demanded. The woman gasped, holding her mouth open more in shock than compliance with his command.

"You're a vampire!" Blight said, staring at the fangs. "I've betrayed myself."

"Yeah, I'm a vampire," she said, shivering. "All my family is. We're totally into the vampire thing. What's wrong with you? You're some sort of culturally insensitive bigot."

Blight narrowed his eyes and pulled out his sword, pressing the blade against the woman's face. "You insolent—"

He glanced down and stared at the tip of the blade, as red blood began to run from a cut in the woman's face.

Red blood mixed with white make-up.

"It doesn't burn you. You're…_fake."_

"Stop it, you're hurting me!" the girl shrieked, tears leaking from her eyes.

Blight stopped pressing against her and took a step back. "You aren't a real vampire—"

The girl made a labored, terrified nod, and Blight realized in disgust that it was difficult for her to break character—for her to even admit that she was human!

"I'm just… you know, it's my religion and stuff. R-real vampires don't exist!" she said, shivering. "I've not been bitten by anyone, but you know, my boyfriend. He thinks it's so sexy and—"

"Silence!" Blight spat, striking the woman across the face. "You're an abomination. You've been given the gift of life, full and abundant, and you defile it with this pretend un-death. Halloween has passed and you continue with a masquerade as though it were real."

"It's my religion!" she protested, slowly trying to inch away from the man in front of her. "You're crazy, you're insane!" she spat, hurling obscenities at him as she moved farther.

"You pretend to the point of convincing yourself that you are a vampire, yet I'm the crazy one?" Blight asked softly. "Blasphemy of life deserves only death."

Blight swung his sword, and blood splattered on the sidewalk.

* * *

Human forms wrapped in black clothing flipped across rooftops, their footfalls heavy on the roofs of wood and metal and stone that made up much of Jump City's Westron District, which, despite its odd name, wasn't in the west side of town at all.

The leader of the group landed near a skylight and slinked towards the edge of the roof, where she looked down into a sparsely lit shopping district, all the stores closed for the night. She wiped long hair from her face. Her eyes needed no night vision goggles—they were perfectly adapted for the night.

"Are we going to get the jump on him?" a voice whispered over her shoulder. "He killed them all—my cousin Emile, everyone. He killed House Kensington. This demon deserves to burn in the hell he crawled out of."

The woman raised her hand and spoke as low as she could. "Blight killed many of our cousins, and terrorized someone dear to me."

"Your daughter," the man said.

"He will burn," the woman reaffirmed. "But we must not jump the gun. We must have patience, or we will fail just as the defenders at house Kensington did."

Behind the woman, twenty more soldiers clad in black surrounded area. A figured leaned against a metal light pole in the middle of the shopping area.

"It's him," she whispered. She began using hand signals to direct the rest of her soldiers to opposite rooftops, until the figure was completely surrounded.

"We have you now," she whispered.

* * *

The T-Car was blazing down McKone street near where the previous night's murders had taken place when the call came in; Cyborg patched it through on the T-Car's monitor screen. The face of Detective Simmons appeared on the screen.

"Titans, we've got some news. On the south-east end of town, a triple homicide with a bladed weapon and—"

"What street?" Robin growled, interrupting her.

"The police have this covered," she shot back through the speaker. "Listen, there was a report in the same area of a large group of figures 'dressed like ninjas' moving towards the Barefoot Shores shopping center."

"Probably related," said Ragnarök.

"Probably a bunch of vampires sending out their cavalry to take down the hunter," Beast Boy said cheerfully. Cyborg and Robin shot him derisive glances.

"Vampires?" asked Simmons, incredulous.

Robin shook his head. "Beast Boy has an overactive imagination. We'll head to the shopping center and see what we can find. Robin out."

* * *

Benji Grant inched towards the edge of the roof, his monocular focused on the figure in the center. He could make out the slow in-and-out motion of the figure breathing, but something still seemed a bit off. If this was really the Ultraviolet Blight, why was he just standing there, letting them surround him. Surely he could see them well enough to know he was surrounded.

"I don't think that's him," a nearby voice said.

Benji winced, but then lied about his confidence. "It is, it has to be. What makes you think it's not him?"

"I don't know," the figure said. "Maybe the fact that he's right next to you."

Benji hadn't felt much emotion since being turned. But that sentence sent ice through his black veins. Benji's head jerked to the right, and he stared into the pale white face, the cruel yellow eyes, lying next to him on the roof.

Blight smiled. "Boo."

Benji cried out as a sharp pain exploded through his back, and he heard and felt an injection go off, felt a burning toxin rush through his body. Then he felt himself start to burn, until everything went dark.

* * *

"BENJI!" cried Mihaela as the fire consumed him, lighting up his attacker enough for even a human to see.

She reached to her belt and pulled out her radio, mashing the button and shouting into it. "EVERYONE, ATTACK, NOW!"

Fifteen figures clad in black immediately descended from the rooftops of the shopping center, all heading directly towards Blight. Mihaela, curiosity calling, ran towards the center of the shopping center where the decoy had been placed, but before she got there a younger, faster soldier darted towards the center and sliced into the decoy with clawed fingers, snarling in rage…

"No, wait!" Mihaela cried.

_**BOOOOM!**_

The construct exploded, and Mihaela recoiled, her nostrils burning with the faintest tinge of the garlic contained within the improvised explosive.

The kid who had charged into it lay on the ground, now a pile of garlic-covered ashes and black clothing.

Mihaela hissed a curse and looked up too see Blight, fencing with one of the soldiers.

"Use the guns!" she shouted.

Several shots rang out, but Blight leapt away from them to another rooftop, and Mihaela took matters into her own hands, pulling a big shotgun from her back and leaping to the roof near the one where Blight had gone. Blight leveled a pistol at her, and Mihaela came to a dead stop, causing Blight's shots to arc in front of her as he kept moving. She returned fire with the shot gun, aiming for his head but only peppering the tail of his coat.

"He's fast," she whispered.

Several of her solders did incredible inhuman leaps, landing in front of Blight, and Mihaela ran at him from behind with her shot gun ready.

Blight jumped away as one of the soldiers attacked him with claws, and kicked him in the stomach. He propelled himself forward towards the other one, shoulder-ramming him to the ground. He turned back and fired off three more shots with a single hand, but they hit only the rooftop.

Blight pulled out his sword, wielding it with one hand as he plunged it into the soldier behind him and let go. Mihaela's stomach soured as she watched another comrade burn to ashes.

The hunter turned, both hands on the pistol now, and fired two shots, both of them slamming into the kneecaps of the soldier he had shoulder-rammed seconds earlier, and both the man's legs exploded into clouds of ash and smoke. He collapsed onto the shingle and rolled down the rooftop to the concrete walkway below.

The rest of the soldiers had arrived by this point, swords and guns flashing and forcing Blight off the roof and down into the courtyard below. During the day and well into the night, this place would be filled with pedestrians and shoppers, vacationers from Idaho and tourists from foreign countries.

The bleak emptiness it now contained made it an all too perfect place for a battle, and Mihaela finally realized that he had planned to trap them here all along.

"Retreat!" she cried into her radio. But her plea fell on deaf ears, the others too angered by the deaths of their friends to heed her order. They charged down, Blight firing garlic-laced crossbow bolts into several of them.

Mihaela jumped into the fray too, deciding that even if he meant to trap them, they could use it to their advantage.

But before she could get there, a loud rumble began to catch the attention of everyone present, and as all the soldiers looked away, Blight put a bit of distance between himself and them.

Even the hunter couldn't resist looking, however..

As a pair of brilliant white headlights blinded them all, a huge blue-and-white car smashing through a billboard on one end of the park, scattering its pieces everywhere as the T-Car slammed into the middle of the courtyard, a massive rocket blazing from the tail end.

The rocket powered down and five figures sprung out—people Mihaela recognized well: The Boy Wonder, Robin; the Million Dollar Teen, Cyborg; the alien warrior, Starfire; the animal shape shifter, Beast Boy; and the high-tech geokinetic, Ragnarök.

Where Raven and the newest Titan were, Mihaela didn't know. But she was simultaneously awed and terrified, because while the Titans were the city's greatest heroes—

"They'll think we're the villains," one of the soldiers whispered.

And then someone who Mihaela hadn't heard before spoke.

"Illumina!" Blight growled, extending a hand. Suddenly the sword he had used earlier flew across the courtyard of the shopping center and cut through another of Mihaela's friends. She crumpled into ashes, drawing cries of anger and shock from the remaining sixteen soldiers…

"I told you all," Beast Boy shouted. "Vampires. Just like I said. And I bet that blue-haired guy is the hunter that killed everyone last night."

"An astute deduction," Blight said, though not loud enough for the Titans to hear it.

"He's a murderer!" one of the soldiers shouted towards the Titans causing them to move to a ready position.

"What should we do, man?" Cyborg asked, and she saw that he was talking to Robin.

"We bring him down. Titans, GO!"

And to her immense surprise and relief, the Titans charged, directly at the Ultraviolet Blight, Cyborg getting there first and shoulder-ramming him into a light pole near the edge of the courtyard.

"EVERYONE!" Mihaela shouted, "attack the Blight!"

* * *

Blight hissed in pain as he slammed into the pole, then threw himself down to avoid the pistol shot of at least two of the night dwellers. He gripped Illumina with both hands and ran forward, letting their bullets strike him in the chest as he sliced towards the sun-fearing flesh of the lead soldier…

Until a metal bo-staff smacked him in the face. "I don't care what kind of creatures these people are," Robin said, "you murdered three humans earlier this evening, and you're going to pay for it."

"Two criminals and a vampire-worshiper," he spat. "Worse than the night dwellers themselves."

Blight felt the blood in his mouth and swung his sword around the other way, wondering why the other vampires hadn't shot him yet. He realized a minute later that Cyborg and Ragnarök had taken their guns away for some inexplicable reason. He didn't care, leaping over a pair of the vampires, bouncing off their heads and landing near one of the females. He stabbed her in the stomach, then turned and cut the arm off another solider behind him, his arm and the dagger in it falling to the ground.

The ground promptly smacked Blight in the face, as Ragnarök used geokinetic projectiles against Blight, the rocks driving him backwards.

"You call yourselves heroes but you won't let me purge this town of its cancer."

Beast Boy landed next to Ragnarök and smirked.

"Funny," he said. "I figured a vampire hunter would look—I dunno, different."

"What were you expecting? Wesley Snipes? Or perhaps a snarky blonde cheerleader." Blight said, but just loud enough for the changeling and Rag to hear.

Beast Boy shrugged, then his massive gorilla form grabbed Blight and tossed him across to Starfire, who caught him by the shoulders and forced him to drop Illumina.

"I am sorry to disappoint you, but we do not murder our foes, no matter how evil they seem to be."

"That's weakness, girl," he said, trying to head butt her before realizing that her head was a lot harder than his. The result was pain.

He recoiled and spat a tooth, the accompanying ultraviolet blood dripping down and burning the flesh of one of the vampires.

Starfire dropped him as the soldiers surrounded him. "Perhaps you would be less eager to shed blood were the tables turned," she said.

Blight felt himself sweat, felt his hands on the cold concrete, inches away from his sword and unable to move because any move would instantly get him killed. Only one option left, then.

They'd find out why the legends called him _Ultraviolet_ Blight.

* * *

Ragnarök ran forward, his visor going off on all kinds of crazy tangents as he arched Cyborg. "Glomp! This is not good. His ultraviolet energy is going crazy."

"Crazy?"

"I think he's going to unleash it—just like in that room back at the apartments. They're all going to—"

Just then bright light erupted around Blight, surrounding him in a sheath of energy, and he stood up as the vampire staggered back. "He's not releasing much UV yet," Rag said, "but it's increasing, and I think—"

Cyborg thought faster, using his arm to push Rag out of his way and shouting at all the vampires, "RUN FOR COVER!"

Some of them complied. Most of them tried. For most of them, it was too late. The Titans shielded their eyes and flesh as a brilliant burst of white light and UV rays erupted in the courtyard, saturating everything with the radiation.

Cyborg looked up when it was clear and began to mentally work on a cure for skin cancer in one of his sub-processors.

Then he gasped when he saw the scene; ten vampires lay dead in front of him, their heads and arms turned to ash, their bodies mostly intact inside the dark clothing. Blight stood, his clothing wasted away down to his pants and a transparent bullet-proof vest that was riddled with the ammunitions the vampires had spent on him.

He picked up his sword and slowly stood, glaring at Starfire. "As I said," he whispered. "Weakness."

Starfire's eyes flared bright and she slammed her fist into his chest, sending Blight staggering backwards. "Weakness? Weakness? You use your powers to slaughter scores of men, women and children who cannot defend themselves against the abilities you possess? You are not strong, you are a coward!"

She began furiously pounding on Blight's chest, and he reached out and called his sword to him again, trying to cut Starfire with it. She flew away and hurled a flurry of starbolts at him, her anger tangible in the air..

But Blight just raised his sword and the starbolts… missed. They changed direction in mid-air and arced into the sword.

"Your power isn't that different than my own," Blight said, spitting up blood. "Though I don't guess I can fly. Or lift a truck."

Blight reached into a pocket and pulled out a small black sphere… and hurled it at the ground, causing a burst of smoke to surround him.

The Titans charged into it, but by the time it had dissipated, Blight was long gone.

* * *

Only five had survived Blight's murderous rampage, and all of those that did had wounds. The soldier whose legs Blight had shot off had managed to crawl behind a dumpster where he was safe from the ultraviolet burst. The man whose arm had been cut off hid inside a shop, and three others, including Mihaela, escaped with only burn wounds from the burst of energy.

Now they were far too weak to run, though, and they had only one option—to stay and deal with the Teen Titans.

Robin stood in the center of the courtyard, Starfire behind him. He looked rigid and stiff as an atheist confronted by the presence of the Divine. It was obvious to her that he didn't believe that her kind could exist—or at least hadn't believed until a few moments ago. The conversation that came next might be awkward, she decided.

"Who are you?" Robin asked, keeping his stance rigid.

"My name is unimportant," Mihaela said.

"I'd like to know it anyway."

She blinked. "Mihaela Grant."

He nodded slowly, and extended a hand. "I'm Robin."

"Yes, you're quite famous." She shook his hand, and found herself in vague awe. She was actually meeting a real-life superhero! Even shaking his hand!

Of course, the reality of the grim business quickly reasserted itself.

"Your survivors are wounded—is there any way that we can help?"

"Robin," Starfire interrupted. "I do not--"

He held up a hand and that seemed to silence her. "We'll trust them for now. They know what you can do to them."

Mihaela's eyes widened. "Was that a threat, Boy Wonder?"

"No," he said. "I don't want anyone else to die, but we're in uncharted territory here. Would you mind coming back to the Tower? I have many questions and the sun will rise eventually. We can help treat your injuries."

Mihaela glanced to the side at her trusted friend Lumiere, who only showed an expression of concern. He had a deep burn across his forehead. "We could use the help. Your mother will know what to do."

Mihaela nodded.

Beast Boy grinned. "Cool! We're going to get to see vampire magic or bat messengers or—"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out…

"—a cell phone," Beast Boy finished, dejected.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Mihaela dialed the number for the Grant mansion and waited three rings before she made a connection. "Mother?"

"How has the battle gone, my darling?" came the ancient voice of Ionela Grant.

"We lost." Mihaela said.

She heard her mother sigh deeply.

After a moment, Ionela said, "yet you live. This is uncharacteristic of the one called Blight."

"The Teen Titans intervened," she said. "Some of them at least—the sorceress and the rubber boy are not among them. We lost many, mother. Only... five of us remain."

Mihaela's mother was silent for a moment, and she began to wonder if her mother hadn't dropped the phone in shock. Finally, the words came.

"Perhaps it is for the best… that the Blight survived. I fear something terrible is coming to this city. Something… primal."

"Mother? What do you mean?"

Another long pause. "Pay it no mind," her mother finally said.

"Mother, the Titans wish for us to go with them to their Tower in the bay. We are wounded and they wish to help us in exchange for information."

Ionela seemed intrigued. "Hm. I understand. Go with them, then. Teach them what you can, and learn what you can from them. I've had a premonition that many things are about to be resolved. Godspeed, my daughter."

"Thank you, mother." Mihaela pulled the phone down and snapped it shut. "Very well," she said. "We will go to your tower with you. And if we vanish from this world, the might and wrath of House Grant will come down on you."

Robin nodded. "You're smart to be skeptical," he said. "Do you have your own vehicles?"

"Of course," Mihaela said. "This is the twenty-first century, after all."

* * *

Far away from the shopping center, a young woman exited a seedy dive, the smell of alcohol and smoke saturating her clothing. And one of Blight's enemies descended, not 'enlightened' in the slightest, falling on the screaming bartender and snatching her away before anyone could come to her aid. 

High in a tree top, his teeth sank into her flesh and he feasted on the blood that leaked from her neck. The woman whimpered until she was too weak to whimper and only then did the man let go, licking the red sustenance from his lips.

He let the bartender go and she slid out of the tree and fell into a creek below with a splash and a sickening thud. The virus now inside her would erase all evidence of her murder, assuming she lay there till the rising of the sun.

The vampire was satisfied, until his phone began to ring. He answered it.

"Yes?"

"The leaders of House Carpathia and House Dragomir have called a meeting," a harsh voice on the other end said. "Word is the Ultraviolet Blight has eradicated House Kensington."

"Then the 'enlightened' of this county are weakened," the man said, grinning a fanged grin.

"Indeed. Now will be the perfect time to _strike_."


	23. Blight: Firstborn

**Chapter Twenty-Three  
Firstborn**

The first question on the minds of everyone at Titans Tower was simple—where do vampires come from, and how are they so similar to those depicted on television and movies? Surely Hollywood couldn't be so accurate about creatures that supposedly didn't exist.

Mihaela told the story exactly as she knew it:

Seven hundred years, a terrible plague was sweeping through Europe. The Black Death. Thousands, if not millions, fell to the dreadful disease, peasant, merchant, and lord alike. Black boils the size of eggs appeared on their skin in the final stages. Anyone who reached that stage was assuredly going to die. In those days there was little medicine and even less cleanliness. The only surefire cure in those days was in the realm of magic, and magic in those days was defined by alchemy.

But alchemy failed to produce a cure.

There was a great sorcerer whose name was lost to history, and he found a cure, using not alchemy, but the Old Ways of magic. But this man was selfish, charging exorbitant fees for his cure. His smug confidence was punished, for he soon found himself contracting the same disease he charged so much to cure.

He immediately began constructing a sorcery circle. The finest magic sand from the shores of Themyscira. Pure water from a spring atop Mount Olympus—and many other ingredients too numerous to list, or so history says. As the magician prepared his spell, he thought he had beaten death.

Death has a cruel since of humor, it would seem.

The sorcerer began the spell flawlessly. He had performed it many times before. But as fate or chance would have it, a bat, vicious and thirsty for blood, flew through the window of the magician's study.

"As bats seem wont to do," Robin said cryptically.

"I do not follow," Mihaela said. She continued:

The magician gasped, knowing that the interference of the creature could ruin everything. But he couldn't move, the spell already washing over him. The bat was struck by a bolt of magical energy and crashed into the runic circle around the magician, moving the sand and altering the nature of the spell.

Magic of order transformed into magic of chaos, and the magician's healing spell went gravely wrong. His entire body was consumed by demonic fire, the plague inside him the only thing not destroyed by the spell. But the man's soul lived on—the spell gave him his life in a way that he had not thought possible. His very soul was bonded to the disease, a living, thinking strain of it. It quickly infected the bat, and the sorcerer awoke to realize that he now possessed the creature that had cost him his body.

"This is getting really weird," Beast Boy commented.

"Not to mention chronologically impossible," Robin commented. "The legends of vampires have been around a lot longer than seven hundred years, even if the name itself is relatively new."

"Yes," Mihaela said, "the sorcerer was undoubtedly aware of the legends and rumors of corpses that consumed the blood of the living." She continued:

The sorcerer's first action in the form of a bat was to find the nearest human and sink the fangs of its new body into the human's neck. Soon, the sorcerer realized that the plague that he was bonded to was different than the normal strains. He could alter the symptoms at will, and psychically control the creatures he had bitten. He soon found a way to transfer his own consciousness to a new host body. He left the bat and took the form of a human once more. To instill terror, the misanthrope began altering the symptoms of the disease psychically in all those he had infected to match those of the folklore of the vampire.

"Of course," Robin thought aloud. "He kept changing the symptoms—they evolved as the mythos of the vampire did, to match what the public thought a vampire was. Perception is a powerful thing."

"Yes," Mihaela said. "But that eventually proved to be a curse."

The sorcerer had a new name. Now he was known among his 'children' as Firstborn, the original vampire. Soon, however, vampire weaknesses from folklore became a part of the actual symptoms. Fire was the first—a vampire could be destroyed by being set ablaze. Soon more weaknesses were added, and Firstborn became alarmed. Sunlight was by far the most worrisome. The pain of walking in the sun caused Firstborn to loosen its ties to the rest of the vampire world. We began to grow independent.

"And then what?" Beast Boy asked.

"The year was 1922," Mihaela replied.

The film was called _Nosferatu._Early folklore saw vampires unaffected by sunlight, and later folklore made it a nuisance at worst. This film added something new. Sunlight was more than an annoyance—it was _fatal._Sunlight would kill any vampire that came into contact with it. The psychic links between us adapted to this new, now almost-universal folklore. Vampires began dying immediately, and our kind was forced to retreat into homes and caves until nightfall, and to stay away from any powerful ultraviolet radiation source.

Firstborn itself vanished into the night, permanently severing its connection with its offspring. In the blink of an eye the entire species became independent, entirely free of Firstborn's will. The eldest among us filled the void.

* * *

"So all of you are vulnerable to sunlight?" Robin asked.

"It is one of three weaknesses shared by everyone," Mihaela replied. "The others being fire and a steak through the heart."

"But there are weaknesses not shared by everyone?"

She nodded, glancing over her shoulder at Lumiere as if to ask 'should I tell them?'

He gave her no response, so she continued.

"There are some. Garlic is one. House Kensington, the group slain by Blight, was immune to garlic. A fact that Blight exploited."

"How?"

"My… daughter… was with them, visiting House Kensington that night. He defanged her, carved a mark into her face, and sent her to us to tell us he was coming. He realized she was from House Grant because she was not immune to garlic."

"Charming fellow," Ragnarök commented in a faux British accent.

Mihaela shot him a glare, probably for making a joke of her daughter's disfigurement, and Ragnarök slinked away in fear.

Starfire placed a comforting—gloved—hand on Mihaela's shoulder. "We are sorry to learn of this tragedy. I believe that we will do what we can to help you. Robin will not let you down."

Robin nodded. "Any other immunities?"

"Crosses," she said. "Vampires with an aversion to crosses are rare among the Enlightened; those that do exist are most always among the Feral—the vampires that still partake of the blood of their fellow humans."

"Fellow?" Robin asked.

"Do you consider us less than human?" Mihaela asked pointedly.

"I'd say if the 'Feral' feel they can kill humans with impunity, they consider themselves more."

"No doubt. Nonetheless, the weakness to the cross is a psychosomatic reaction found in houses whose leaders are desperately wicked and aware of their wickedness. My mother prays over a cross every evening, and is probably a better person for it."

"Your mother is the head of your house, yes?" Starfire asked.

She nodded. "How are the rest of our men doing?" Mihaela asked. "If you don't mind, I would like to take a break. I'm rather weary of answering questions."

"Just one more," Robin said pointedly. "What has happened to 'Firstborn'?"

* * *

Far away from Titans Island, in a dingy clock tower on the outskirts of Jump City where a boy had once betrayed his comrades in order to save their lives, where a mask split down the middle by opposing colors had been broken, there moved figures in the darkness, like wraiths in a haunted mansion. They were assembling the intricate pieces to a stolen energy weapon, enthralled to the will of a woman in dark glasses

The woman smiled, a pair of razor-sharp fangs showing as her lips parted.

"Continue," she told her slaves. "I have business to take care of elsewhere."

* * *

Blight's eyes snapped open, and at first he didn't know where he was or how he had arrived there. The ceiling was blank and the only light on it dim. Slowly he sat up. Seeing the scattered food containers and the unplugged television, he realized that he was back in his hotel room. 

He realized he was in a cold sweat, his hands trembling—and then the memories of the night flashed through his skull—House Grant's soldiers, the Teen Titans. All of it: including his failure.

"I could have been killed. Or worse, apprehended" he whispered to himself. "I was careless. Foolish to engage them in public."

Yes. Foolish. Vampires should only be slaughtered in the comfort of their own homes.

Blight quickly got out of bed and reached out his hand, summoning Illumina and making his way to the porch. A glance at the clock told him it was 3:PM—he wouldn't have much daylight left to absorb. He'd have to move fast—

But when he looked up out the window, he soon saw that wouldn't be a concern; the sky was covered in grey clouds, and light rain was falling, casting a terrible shadowy pall over the normally-sunny Jump City. "Bleak weather on a day when I need it least. Perhaps they hired a weather shaman to impede me."

It wasn't cold enough for snow, at least. "Thank Saint Dumas for small miracles," Blight muttered. He stepped out into the chilly wind of the balcony and hurled Illumina into the wall, the thirty-inch blade impaling a foot into the wood and plaster. When the sun came out, it would begin charging.

Blight moved back inside and used the hotel phone to order some Chinese food. He would eat heartily and meditate for the rest of the day.

* * *

"Man, he really needs to find a hobby," said one of the readers.

* * *

Cyborg emerged from the large metal doors of ops and paused when he looked across and saw the metal plates over the windows of Tower's huge common room. Even with the bad weather, they wouldn't risk letting any sunlight in.

The Ops room had been converted into a makeshift medical center, the wounded vampires up on cots. The one who had lost both legs in the fight was lying back watching TV with Beast Boy, while the others with lesser wounds—a single missing limb instead of two, for example—were milling around looking impatient with Robin as he and Starfire spoke with Mihaela.

"And that's the last we heard of Firstborn," Mihaela finished saying. "We believed that body was lost to the sea, along with all the wealth she possessed."

"She?" Cyborg asked, moving over to a panel on the wall.

"Greta Lis," Robin said. "The last known host of the… entity… that spawned the vampire race."

"Wow, go on a trip to find some blood and miss the secret origin of an entire species." Cyborg gave a self-depreciating smirk.

"Blood?" asked one of the bored vampires, more interested in the food than the jokes.

"I had to pay a pretty penny of Robin's money for it," he said, "But I got a local hospital to donate a bunch for us."

"What on the Earth did you tell them the purpose of this purchase was?" Starfire asked, raising one of the dots above her eyes.

"I said we had some wounded from a fight last night and needed a bunch for transfusions."

"Well that's subtle," Ragnarök commented over his shoulder. He was in the kitchen and Cyborg hadn't even noticed him until now.

"Hey, I had to say something." Cyborg shrugged. "And it's essentially true, even if it ain't the kind of transfusion they had in mind."

"Where is the blood?" the bored vampire asked eagerly. Cyborg thought for a moment he would salivate on the carpet.

"In the T-Car." He reached over and pressed a few buttons on one of the wall panels and mechanical whirring noises began emanating from the device. Moments later, the panel opened and a large metal box full of vials of blood ejected from the wall. Cyborg effortlessly lifted it up and took it to the center of the room. "And now up here," he finished. Cyborg had installed a device a few months earlier that let him transport things from the garage all the way up to ops—essentially an automated dumbwaiter. Just plug the T-Car in and call the cargo up when he got there.

The vampires immediately began tearing into the container and downing its contents, and Cyborg found himself having to look away. He moved over to where Robin was standing and tried to get a feel for what he and Mihaela were discussing.

"So this last known host was a woman?" Cyborg asked as he stopped next to Robin.

"Apparently." Robin glanced at Mihaela. "You should go eat something and conserve your strength. Blight's still out there somewhere, and I have a hunch he's not the only thing afoot."

"Please, what do you mean by a foot, Robin?" Starfire landed next to him, shifting the weight away from the foot that Overkill had injured in Miami. "I do not wish to deal with the thoughts of feet at this moment."

"It's a figure of speech," Robin said, he paused then smirked, trying to bring some levity but coming across as a bit angry. "If you had just kissed me longer when we first met we wouldn't have this problem."

Starfire glared at him and pointedly crossed her arms—a very human gesture, Cyborg thought. "At the time I was in a state of panic and merely wished to communicate my death threat to you so that you would leave me alone. I did not anticipate I would need a thorough grasp of the language because I did not plan to stay here."

"Chill, Star," Cyborg said. "He was only joking."

"Oh!" Starfire goggled. "Then I apologize."

Cyborg sighed inwardly. He missed the days when they were stumbling over themselves to avoid mentioning their mutual attraction. Watching Robin living up to his mentor's less than favorable reputation when it came to relationships was almost as painful as the time Brother Blood ripped his arms off.

Almost.

"Anyway," Robin said. "Mihaela has said that there are several 'Feral' houses in this region, and is afraid that now that House Kensington is gone, there will be a war between them."

"And that would probably spill over into the streets of Jump City," Cyborg said. "Civilians would get caught in the crossfire."

"Right. Obviously Starfire is our greatest asset against them if we have to keep the piece. And I'm thinking about—"

Before Robin could finish this thought, his communicator began to buzz, and he pulled it out and flipped it open. "Alvin here. Talk to me, Davis." Cyborg recognized Alvin as a pseudonym he used on undercover missions, and also the name he gave when talking to Davis when he wasn't with the team on weekends.

"Yin?" Cyborg asked. "What's he calling about on a Tuesday?"

Robin and the boy on the other side chatted for a bit, Cyborg not bothering to eavesdrop. Robin looked upset and frustrated when he deactivated the communicator.

"Not good," he said gravely.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Yin's foster father, Samuel Parsons, was involved in an accident, he's in stable condition at the Adventist Hospital."

"Oh, man, what happened?"

"This is most distressing."

Robin walked over to a chair and sat down, and for a moment Cyborg thought he would pull his spiky hair out. "It sounds bad. Multiple lacerations and a punctured left lung. He wants one of us to go up there. He said there was more to it but wouldn't tell me what."

"Starfire, you up to going?" Cyborg asked.

"No." Robin said evenly. "I need Starfire here for obvious reasons. You'll have to go, Vic."

"What? But I just got here. I don't want to get out on the road again—"

Robin glared at him. "It wasn't a request."

"Starfire is a lot more compassionate than I am," Cyborg protested. "And if not her, send Beast Boy."

"Beast Boy doesn't have a car," Robin said. "And Ragnarök doesn't have a valid driver's license in this universe."

"That's because I'm fifteen!" he called from across the room. "Not my fault your world has screwy driving age laws."

"Don't worry," Beast Boy said, dropping his controller and standing up. "Rae can just teleport me… No she can't." He slumped back down and picked the device back up.

"Just go!" Robin ordered Cyborg. "And keep a low profile. Use your hologram rings."

"Whatever you say, Fearless," Cyborg muttered as he stomped off towards the elevator. He was getting dangerously close to reconsidering the Titans East offer of leadership by this point.

* * *

The posters had indicated that a magic show would be going down here this evening. There would be a show, all right. And it would involve magic. The woman in dark sunglasses slinked towards center stage, a rapt audience of goth punks, emo kids, and vampire wannabes. A few elderly and middle aged former-hippies made up the back row.

She'd seen all the movements come and go. She didn't care how they identified themselves. Human flesh was malleable, useful. Human bodies were organisms unique in all the galaxy in their biological adaptability. So many mutations. So many diseases.

There was one disease the woman had created herself—and she was truly more disease than woman to start with.

The sheep before her began to murmur and demand to see the promised spectacle. The woman smiled. "The show will commence in a few seconds," she said softly.

She inhaled deeply, then leaned forward, exhaling a massive gust of wind. A swarm of bats erupted from deep within her mouth, and her arms and legs began to disintegrate, also transforming into the nocturnal creatures—her black coat, hair even the sunglasses on her face transformed. The bats lashed out, clawing and biting the audience.

The 'woman', now with dozens of ears, savored their screams as the fangs sank into the flesh of her victims.

They didn't know it yet, but they were all her stage hands. Her ultimate trick?

To make an entire species disappear forever.

* * *

It had started with Chicago. That was where Blight had first made his presence known. He eliminated an entire house in one night, and then three more. By the time the rest of the Houses had wised-up and prepared, a quarter of the vampire strength in DuPage and Cook counties had vanished.

Then the heat got too strong, and the Order sent Blight to New York, Jersey City, Gotham, Bludhaven, Opal, and further south. Atlanta had few enclaves, and they were eradicated within a day. Metropolis would have to wait for a time when Blight was stronger.

Unfortunately every city was abandoned before he could finish the job. The houses fought together too well when threatened by an outside force.

But Jump City was newer. California had only really begun growing in the 19th century, and the enclaves and Houses there were younger, weaker. Blight couldn't do it alone, but inciting a war and letting the Titans take care of it for him? That might just work.

He'd have to clean up, of course. But the plan seemed sound.

That dreary, rainy Tuesday wasn't wasted after all.

Blight snapped out of meditation and began using a secure phone to contact the Order. If he were to pull this off…

He would need a bit more equipment than usual.

* * *

Vic Stone reached the hospital after twenty minutes of driving through torrential rain and briefly posed as one of Samuel Parsons' nephews using his hologram rings in order to find his room number. When the receptionist had commented that he sounded like Cyborg, he almost had a heart attack—well, not exactly, since his internal pacemaker prevented his heart from entering cardiac arrest. But I digress.

He reached the ICU quickly and found Yin outside slumped against the wall and playing a DS. His face was red, and it was clear he had recently been crying. Cyborg grimaced before he approached, using the hologram rings to simulate a normal-looking Victor Stone in a big Jump City High hoodie.

"You okay, man?" Cyborg asked from above the boy.

"Cyborg, is that you?" he said more than asked, closing the game system and slipping it in his pocket. "I thought Robin was coming."

"Robin's working on a big case," Cyborg said, stuffing his hands in the front pockets of the holographic hoodie. "What's going on? How did this happen?"

Yin looked back through the window to the ICU and sniffled. "My parents had a fight. My dad went out and spent the night a hotel. I didn't see him at all yesterday. Then I got a call a few hours ago that he had been in a wreck. All they'd tell me is he was driving drunk and lost control. So I came here to find out for myself."

Cyborg sat down next to him and tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible for someone of his size. "Is your mom here, man? How'd you get here?"

"I played Spider-man," Yin replied, stretching his index finger a bit and making the trademark web-launching noise with his mouth—or rather a vague approximation of it.

"You really don't need to be doing that." Vic looked away for a minute. "And, look, I don't want to be rude, cause I know it's hard to have a parent hurt like this, but why did you want one of us to come up here? Robin told you Raven was gone, right?"

Yin clutched the game system in his pocket like a safety blanket or stress reliever and looked down the hallway behind Cyborg, as if he had forgotten something important and terrible and just now remembered it. He muttered something that Cyborg couldn't make out even with the advance auditory sensors in his robot ear.

"What?"

"I said, my parents are getting divorced," Yin muttered again, more coherently.

Cyborg recoiled physically as if the statement struck him in the fact, his heart sinking as he realized what Davis just told him. "What? How? Why?!"

"It's all my fault," he said. "My dad doesn't want me to be a hero; it makes him nervous. He doesn't want me on the Titans. My mom says I'll do it either way, and they're both right…" Yin broke down and started crying, and Cyborg had to look away, partly because he didn't want to see a fellow Titan in pain, and partly because he had a bit of hidden contempt for breaking down in public like that. Reminded him too much of himself just after the accident.

Finally, Yin spoke. "My mom went to the lawyer and filed for divorce, and one hour later, dad wrecked."

"So she didn't know about the accident when she filed?! Can't she un-file!?" Cyborg blurted, forgetting to check his volume.

"She said she won't, she said she wouldn't care if he lost an arm. I don't know what's wrong with her. I haven't even bee able to get a hold of her since three o'clock."

"I—" Cyborg trailed off, completely at a loss for words. He wanted to go pound some sense into Yin's parents, but that wouldn't help anything. (And people wondered why he loved to kick butt so much. So much easier to deal with than this.)

"I'm sorry, man," he finally said, still unsure if he was helping at all.

* * *

Susan Stark had seen better years; she'd seen worse years. She was there at the first Woodstock, saw a nation revolt and throw out the crooked president Nixon. She'd watched Jimmy Carter come and go and lived under the horrors of the Reagan and both Bush regimes. Her sons told her she needed to let go and get with the times—the hippy movement was over, they'd say. Said she needed to listen to some guy on the radio, some Link Rambeau or something. Bah.

It was over when Susan Stark said it was over.

She was getting up there in years, sure, but Susan wasn't ready to slow down just yet; she had just gotten home from the most wonderful magic demonstration she had ever seen, and dropped her coat on the coat wrack. She hobbled into the kitchen and sat down by her daughter Samantha, who was visiting for the Nondenominational Winter Holiday coming later this month.

"Wow, mom, back already?" Samantha asked. "That was quick."

"Oh, but it was wonderful," Susan said, lighting a cigarette. She took a drag. "The most fun I've had in ages."

"Well, it must have been a short show. You've only been gone for a couple hours." Samantha looked at her mother oddly. "Do you remember any of the tricks? I want to hear all about it."

"Oh, it was great. It started off with a woman who…"

And then, Susan Stark trailed off and began to wonder if the LSD from her younger years was not eating away at her brain as she spoke. Because she suddenly realized that….

"I don't remember."

"What, mom?" Samantha asked; Susan could see the word Alzheimer's forming on her daughter's lips. Ridiculous… but…

"I don't remember the show at all… I just remember.. the feeling. It made me feel so good. The most fun I've had… in ages."

"Mom, you're starting to scare me," said the daughter. "Do you think I should call the doctor?"

"I… don't know…" Susan looked away and turned on the television, drifting off into the charms of Drew Carrey as he hosted _The Price Is Wright_. (TiVo was truly remarkable.)…

But as she did, an image, a dark silhouette began clawing at the back of her mind, as if burning with an overpowering desire to escape. She closed her eyes and could see it all the more clearly. It scared her, leathered wings flapping with the screech of sonar.

It looked like a bat.

* * *

Robin heard the door to Titans Tower slide open, and expected bad news or at least a very somber Cyborg to walk off. What he didn't expect was the much shorter figure with spiky blond hair, trailing behind him, wrapped in several layers of clothing and carrying a familiar yin-yang duffle bag.

"Cyborg, what is he doing here?" Robin demanded

"His dad is in the hospital and he can't get a hold of his mom," Cyborg said. "I don't know where else to pup him."

"Yup, that's me," Yin said. "I fold up for easy storage." He promptly curled into a ball and rolled under the kitchen table. Robin sweatdropped, given that if he had looked where he was going he would have noticed five vampires sitting around the living room.

"Yin, that's enough." Robin poked him with his bo-staff, and Yin rolled out and stood up, now facing Robin so that all the vampires were behind him.

"Did Cyborg tell you about our other guests?"

Yin blinked. "Well, no. What other guests?"

Robin pointed, and Yin turned to see the five vampires, standing around and doing entirely human things such as reading books and watching television. Naturally, Yin had no idea what was going on.

"Does this have something to do with the big case Cyborg mentioned?"

"You could say that."

Yin nodded. "Well, I won't get in your way."

About that time, Beast Boy entered the room, and Yin instantly lit up—Robin realized he was masking the pain of the events of the day, but perhaps that was best for now. Robin turned and began discussing the case with Cyborg…

While Yin greeted the changeling. "Dude, you're not going to believe this," he said. "My friend let me borrow a copy of Vampire Killer X4 today at school. This game is awesome! You play as this guy in a duster jacket with solar-powered weaponry. You run around blasting vampires to ash, staking them through the heart, and then burning their corpses with fire. That part's pretty basic, but the boss fights are out of this world. It even has a mission where you kill_Dracula _**and**_Nosferatu_ at the same time!"

Yin blinked when he observed Beast Boy's expression, which vaguely resembled that of a Geico executive suddenly finding himself in a room full of cavemen.

The rubber Titan glanced over his shoulder to see that all five of the strangers in the Tower were now staring at him, fire erupting from their eyes to the point that Yin thought he was going to melt in the heat.

Silence.

Yin stared at them a moment longer.

"Our guests are vampires, aren't they?"

Beast Boy nodded so stiffly that his neck creaked like an old rusty door.

"I'm going to go to my room and play a nice quiet game of _Tetris_," Yin said, then promptly vanished.

Beast Boy called out to him as he moved. "Oh, come on, Dave, it's not like they were wearing labels. And man, that was one crazy coincidence, don't you think, dude?"

Yin continued to ignore him…

…While Robin and Cyborg shook their heads and continued talking. Robin motioned towards the woman, the leader of the group. "Mihaela says that they've rested long enough. They want to take us to see the leader of House Grant. Apparently at the leader's specific request."

"Are you sure we should move out now? Cyborg said. "It's getting late-ish, and last night Blight was out and about from sunset onward."

"I agree," Mihaela said. "We should wait. I do not think Blight will attack us if we leave tonight, but I know he will not if we wait until the cusp of morning." Robin regarded her, and she paused abruptly. "If that is okay with you, of course," she finished, a tinge of frustration and sarcasm in her voice.

"You aren't a prisoner here," Robin said. "You can leave whenever you wish to leave. All I care about right now is stopping Blight from murdering anyone again."

"And finding Slade!" Ragnarök called from across the room.

"Yes, that too, " Robin admitted.

* * *

After five 'magic shows' the woman in dark sunglasses was confident enough seeds had been sown. As soon as the rain stopped tomorrow, it would begin, and the mistake made all those years ago would be rectified… permanently.

It was only a matter of timing, of moving the chess pieces.

Blight's move was first, then the so-called Enlightened House Grant. The Titans were unexpected, but inconsequential. The particle cannon was complete.

One more set of pawns had to make their moves. The 'Feral' houses Carpathia and Dragomir. They had called a meeting, but decided not to attack until House Grant fell to Blight. But that would not fit the woman's schedule at all. Not at all.

She picked up a phone connected to an unlisted phone line, and made a call, altering her vocal cords to just the right pitch. "Hello," she said in a deep voice not her own. "This is Hannibal Dragomir. I want you to strike the bowling alley owned by House Zilliox tonight. Kill everyone. Feel free to drink the humans dry, if you wish."

* * *

Inside the back storage room in Titans Tower, the Boy Wonder searched for some equipment of his own. He heard a rap on the door behind him, and closed the box he was looking at, sliding it back into the shadows as he stood.

"Hey, Robin," Cyborg called. "What are you doing in here? Vampire lady is almost ready to go."

"We should have left before sunrise," Robin responded.

Cyborg shrugged. "She said it wouldn't matter as bad as the weather is. Hurry up, Fearless, Supposed to clear up soon."

"Go get the T-Car started. I'll be down in a minute."

* * *

House Grant, the entity, was a large organization of vampires under the wing of a small vampire named Ionela Grant. But Grant Mansion, the literal house behind the organization, was staggering. Situated on a high hill that overlooked Jump City in the distance, the house dwarfed Wayne Manor, reaching five stories above ground and probably several more below, and extending the same length as a whole city block. White marble and white-painted wood served as the exterior, and a large ornate staircase that lead up the front door seemed to be embroidered with gold. (It certainly wasn't silver, for obvious reasons.)

The T-Car—disguised as a generic sedan—and a jet black armored BMW rolled into the side garage of the mansion at 8:00 AM that morning, and the doors were shut tightly before anyone got out. Robin had, perhaps unwisely, left Beast Boy, Ragnarök, and Yin at the Tower. (Davis was still unable to contact his mother, a fact that was eating away at the back of Robin's mind even now.)

The people of House Grant seemed to bristle as Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire walked by, and it took Robin a moment to realize that the reason for this was Starfire. They were all literally terrified of her—and Robin began to realize just how thoroughly the culture had been affected by the idea of sunlight meaning instant death. All the windows were shut tight, covered in thick plates that presumably contained some metal heavy enough to keep all UV rays out.

Murmurs began washing over the gathered crowds of vampires—there must have been hundreds of them in the mansion—as Mihaela led the three Teen Titans through the winding corridors.

"This places is incredible. Why does House Grant live in this place and Kensington lived in such a dump?" Cyborg asked.

Mihaela answered without looking. "The same reasons any other family would fall into poverty or acquire wealth. House Grant does what it can to help other Enlightened houses, but our resources are not unlimited. Keeping ourselves hidden when our house is in plain sight is not cheap.

Finally, they stopped before a massive double door deep within the house.

One of the nearby guards reached to his belt and pulled out a sidearm. "The alien stays out here. She is not permitted in the meeting room."

"Oh—!" Starfire's eyes widened.

"Starfire can't come with me?" Robin said, glancing back at her.

"There was an incident last night, and we're worried about an assassination attempt."

"What sort of incident?" Robin demanded.

"It will be explained inside," said the guard. "The alien is understood to control her powers through emotions. She is also known to have an allergy that causes involuntarily releases of ultraviolet radiation. We can't let her inside for security reasons."

Robin glanced at the guard's gun, then at Mihaela, who only nodded.

"Very well," Robin said. "Starfire, stay alert and stay with Cyborg. If I'm not back within an hour or two, you know what to do."

Starfire nodded and made a noise of affirmation.

The guard moved away and opened the door. "I assure you, mister Robin, that such actions will not be necessary."

With that, Robin stepped through the threshold and entered the meeting room; immediately he was overwhelmed. The door shut behind him, and he found himself in a huge room with a chair and bench in the middle on the floor, with a narrow walkway that led to it. It was all made of finished wood and plastic that looked like wood, Robin noted. They weren't taking any chances.

All around him, it was like a congressional house, seats surrounding him on all sides. None of these seats were filled though, except for five directly in front of the table and chair in the center, three men and one woman, who appeared to be middle aged, sat on opposite sides of a wrinkled old woman—the occupant of the middle seat. Her demeanor suggested many years and great wisdom, and Robin was, for a moment, reminded of the True Master, albeit a much larger version.

As Robin approached the middle bench and sat down, he noticed men dressed in black moving in the shade. More guards. He also noticed that the old woman's smile revealed a pair of fangs, reminding him of where he was.

"Robin. The Boy Wonder," said the old woman, her accent thick, a mixture of various Eastern-European dialects, but primarily Hungarian and Romanian.

"Ionela Grant," Robin said more than asked.

"Indeed. My daughter has told you a great many things about us. Some of them may have been lies or half truths, but I respect and trust her to be honest when she does not feel threatened."

Robin did not want to mince words with pleasantries, so he sighed and spoke. "Why did you call us here?"

"At fist I merely wanted to see for myself the boy who would take on The Ultraviolet Blight single-handedly."

"I never took him on single-handedly," Robin said. "I barely got a good look at him during the fight."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about last night."

"That's the only time I've ever encountered him," Robin said, growing a bit confused.

Ionela smiled. "So far."

Robin was beginning to wonder if he was wasting his time. It was hard enough to accept an entire mansion full of vampires less than two hours away from Titans Tower, but now she was expecting him to believe that she could also see the future?

"You said 'at first'—" Robin narrowed his eyes to thin white slits. "What has changed."

Ionela looked at the floor, a sadness coming over her features. "I'm afraid you will be dragged into a war," she said. "Last night, a group of the Feral attacked a business owned by one of our allies in Hop Creek."

Robin nodded. Hop Creek was a small community in north-eastern Jump County, out in the boondocks.

"Attacked how?"

* * *

The quartet of bowlers were celebrating a strike when the entire door had exploded in ward, smacking into the side of one of the humans and sending her skidding down the lane halfway to the pins, where she sat up and rubbed the side of her head, the pain clouding her thoughts

"Shelly, are you okay?" one of the men gasped.

Another grabbed one of the bowling balls from the nearby machine and hurled it at the man dressed in black who had kicked the door off its hinges, beaning him in the head. Shelley had no idea how a kick could knock a door of its hinges and send it flying so far… unless he was one of those meta-humans they had in big cities.

The pale man's head snapped back violently, but he didn't fall over. The man who had thrown the bowling ball took a step back, but then the one who had kicked the door down lunged forward, apparently unscathed, and slashed razor-sharp claws across the chest and face; the man fell to the ground with a scream and clutched his wounds, trying to stop the bleeding.

The attacker ran off towards the bowling alley's arcade, growling as if he was hungry.

A woman as pale as the man practically flew into the bowling alley, leaping over a chair and landing hard on the injured human. "This should be good," she whispered, running her fingers across the bleeding wound on the man's face and then licking the blood off.

She sunk her teeth in to the artery on his neck, and the woman called Shelley and the man who was kneeling over her shouted in protest as the injured man began to scream..

_**BLAM**_

An explosion echoed through the bowling alley, and everyone gasped as they realized owner, Terrance Zilliox, stood behind the female vampire, a large gun pointed directly at her back.

The vampire looked down to see a wooden stake protruding from the front of her chest, dripping black liquid, and she cried out as she abruptly burnt to ash. The man she has been feeding on muttered something, clearly delirious.

"Get him out of here," Terrance said to his companions. "He needs medical attention."

A surprised look shot across Terrance Zilliox's face, and he looked down to see a wooden stake through his own chest. He burned to ash just as the woman he had killed did seconds earlier.

Shelly lost track of what happened next, or at least the exact order of it all, but one word kept echoing through her head. _Vampires._Another word occasionally tried to elaborate. _Chaos.  
_

But mostly, Shelly's only thought repeated over and over: _  
_

_I am surrounded by Vampires._

She ran, glancing over her shoulder as a swarm of vampires dressed in black and another group dressed in plainclothes began fighting, tearing through the businesses appliances—chairs, machines, countertops—like they weren't' even there.

The ones in black brought more wooden stakes to bear, shoving them into the chests of the others. The plainclothes vampires fought back, firing at them with guns that launched something that smelled like garlic, searing the flesh of the others.

Through the shouts and the way they sounded muffled, Shelly suddenly realized she had hidden in the pit at the end of one of the lanes, and the rest of the vampires didn't see her. She cringed back, avoiding hitting her head on machinery and found a toppled bowling pin, taking it up as a club incase one came near.

None did; Shelly watched silently in horror as her companions and the other humans in the building were sucked dry of blood by the vampires, as the two opposing factions fought ferociously.

In the end, the plainclothes vampires were outnumbered and out-gunned. Shelly could do nothing but sit back and wait it out.

And fight—fight to retain what little sanity she had left.

* * *

Ionela sighed. "The poor girl was found early this morning, but the police naturally did not believe her. When House Zilliox got word of her story, they founder her and questioned her."

Robin goggled as he absorbed the details of the fight, and began to process what it could mean if the violence spilled over into Jump City proper. Lives would be lost, vampire and human alike. Their cover would be blown, drawing all sorts of paranormal investigators to the region, potentially leading to more strife. It was a recipe for disaster. If it became an all out war, then the Titans would be caught in the middle.

"So this was an act of war," he finally said.

"It was, and yet it wasn't." Ionela answered. "We have many measures to keep war from breaking out. We have spies within the Feral Houses, in their trusted ranks. The vampires that attacked the bowling alley were not acting in the will of the heads of those houses."

Robin blinked. "They acted on their own accord?"

"This is unlikely, as it is punishable by death to take war-like actions without approve of the heads of the Houses. I believe this attack was a deliberate provocation to war on the part of an outsider." When she said this, the other four elders glanced at her oddly.

"How do we stop it?" Robin asked.

"It cannot be stopped," Ionela said. "I have had a premonition. I have seen it happening. When the Blight arrived here, he set events onto a collision course that will resolve many things. And _SHE_ is coming."

"She? Who is she?"

"Firstborn," Ionela whispered, drawing shocked glances from the other four vampires beside her.

Robin tapped his hand on the table in frustration and worry. "I was told Firstborn was a bodiless entity that is transformed from host to host. How do you know that host is a woman now?"

"I have seen her face in my dreams, child," Ionela said. "Greta Lis, the last known host of Firstborn. Her wicked smile, eyes hidden behind dark glasses. I do not know why she has come here, to this of all cities, but there must be a reason."

"The Titans are making this our top priority," Robin said, "But I have no idea how to handle something of this magnitude. I don't even know where to start. I feel like I'm just reacting to a series of events that keep escalating beyond my control. And I'm at a loss for what to do."

"Child," Ionela sighed. "You cannot control fate. You can only control the choices you take when fate presents itself. Chose wisely, Boy Wonder. And remember, you cannot do it all by yourself."

* * *

Cyborg had been running internal diagnostics since Robin went in the room, and hadn't really paid much attention to how much time had elapsed. When he was sure his systems were fine, he went out of diagnostic mode to check on Starfire's.

"Are you okay, Star?"

"I am preoccupied," she said. "I know this is obvious. It is Robin. He worries me—I care for him because he is my friend, perhaps more than my friend, and yet he is pushing me away and obsessing over this container as though we have never dealt with anything beyond our reach before."

It took Cyborg a moment to realize she meant 'case' instead of container.

"I know what you mean, but I also know Robin is trying to do the right thing. I can't just tell him not to try. Not that he'd listen to me if I did."

"It simply causes the stress. That is all."

Cyborg nodded and looked away, when suddenly, a shout rang out and a young vampire ran into the room, shouting wildly, something about the sun. Cyborg shrugged, and the other vampires in the room followed the commotion, until the post near the meeting room door was all but abandoned.

"Let us see what this upheaval is about," Star said, taking off behind them. Cyborg ran after her, until they reached a corridor where some sunlight was coming in—most of the vampires where hiding in the shadows, but Cyborg could see outside well enough to see that the bad weather over the city had cleared up since they'd arrived at Grant Mansion.

And then, he realized what the vampire was so excited about.

Because he and several others were standing in the sun, completely unscathed.

"It doesn't hurt anymore!" said the young one from before. "I can feel the sun on my skin and it doesn't hurt!"

Cyborg stared as the rays of the sun beamed in, casting all the vampires in silhouette. One by one, those cowering in the shadows stepped out into the light. One by one, they all reached the same conclusion:

Their weakness was gone.

"I believe that the fecal matter is about to strike the devotee," Starfire observed.

Cyborg mentally translated, and could only agree.


	24. Blight: War Zone

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I came down with an illness last week that killed my ability to get any work done despite the long weekend. Also, thanks to Legend Maker for doing beta work for this and nearly ever chapter I've ever written. I probably ought to mention this more often.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Four  
Blight: War-Zone  
**

Commotion and confusion reigned in the corridor, where vampires were standing in front of an open window in broad daylight. Young children ran around in the sun and giggled, able to enjoy the sun's rays shining down on their skin possibly for the first time in their lives.

Noise behind him alerted Cyborg to the coming of more people, and he looked back to see about twenty guards running their way, with Robin, Mihaela, and Ionela at the front of the pack.

Ionela began barking something in Romanian, and Cyborg glanced over at Robin.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, joining Cyborg's side.

Cyborg shrugged. "No idea, man. All of a sudden they started shouting, then we followed them this way and saw a bunch of them in the sun without getting hurt."

Robin's eyes widened, and he glanced over at Starfire with a look of concern on his face. "But how? How could their entire weakness just vanish?"

"Perhaps it was a shift of the paradigms," Starfire suggested. "If their weaknesses are based on vampire folklore, maybe they simply wished themselves free of them?"

Robin shook his head. "I don't think it would work that way. How did they find out this was happening?"

Cyborg shrugged, and Robin moved forward trying to work his way through the crowd to find Mihaela. She was near the front of the gathering crowd when Robin reached her.

"Who made the discovery?" he tried to ask.

"It was one of the guards," she said over the commotion. "He found out during the interrogation of a prisoner from House Dragomir."

"Interrogation?" Robin gasped, suddenly wondering if the Enlightened were as enlightened as they made themselves out to be. "Are you saying the exposed a prisoner to sunlight?"

"We will show you," a new voice came, and Robin turned to see Ionela walking towards him, the crowd parting as she moved out of respect. "Perhaps then you won't be so hasty to judge."

* * *

Two stories up, Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, and several guards had been moved into a metallic room with a two-way mirror in front of them, and on the other side…

"Oh!" Starfire gasped when she saw him. It was a man—a vampire—strapped to a wooden table leaned up so that it was almost vertical. Shackles that looked to be made of silver held him in place, and there were dark rings—wounds—where the shackles touched his bare arms and ankles. He was dressed in a threadbare grey outfit that didn't seem typical of any of the vampires Robin had met so far.

"What has he done? Why are you holding this man?" Robin demanded.

"You will remember where you are," Ionela hissed. "This is our turf; you are our distinguished guests, but guests nonetheless. I have worked for many years to ensure that the peace in this city is not broken."

Robin glanced at Cyborg, who just stared at the scene in disgust, but said nothing.

"He's a prisoner here, then. What is he guilty of?"

"He is a spy," Ionela said. "A plant from House Dragomir to learn of our secrets, just as we have our own spies in the houses of the Feral. He was discovered Monday morning when he sent an email to Hannibal Dragomir concerning the slaughter of House Kensington."

"Hm, I hear a heated conversation," the vampire behind the glass hissed. "And I smell the blood of the living. Too bad I'm shackled to this wall like an animal."

Robin cringed, suddenly glad that the man wasn't free.

"You must understand," Mihaela said, "we do what we do to protect ourselves and the outside world."

"How do you interrogate?" Robin asked, stepping up to the glass. "Fear of death?"

"No," Mihaela joined Robin at the glass, bristling slightly as she saw the wounds on his arms. "Hannibal Dragomir inspires fierce loyalty. His soldiers and spies are willing to die for his house. We offer them a quick death in exchange for information. Otherwise we slowly let the sun pass through an ultraviolet filter and drain their life away as they would drain the blood of innocent humans."

Robin gulped, feeling physically sick at the admission. He and Batman had used rough interrogation tactics before, but nothing on this level. Causing someone discomfort was vastly different. Some might call dangling a criminal from a roof torture, but even then, the effects were only psychological.

But slowly roasting their prisoners was a line that Robin couldn't condone crossing.

"This is wrong," he said. "But I can… understand why you do it. To condone it would violate everything I stand for, though."

Ionela nodded. "I would expect no less from a boy as smart as you are."

"So you went to extract information from him," Cyborg thought aloud, "and found that the sunlight wouldn't work."

Nearby, a guard stepped forward. "I was the one interrogating him, Mister Cyborg. When I saw that there was no effect, I thought there was something wrong with the filter. But even in full sunlight… nothing. So then I tested it myself and found that it didn't affect me either."

Cyborg narrowed his mechanical eye and began scanning the vampire's wounds. "But the silver is still affecting him."

The guard's eyes widened. "Are you sure? I hadn't even thought to check that, I was so overwhelmed…"

But sure enough, the wounds on the vampire's arms and ankles were fresh, and the guard tapped the shackle with an un-gloved finger and came away with a sore red spot on the digit.

"One weakness—the most crippling of them all—targeted and completely eliminated between last night and today." Robin said. "Just as a war is brewing thanks to Blight's sudden appearance. But Blight wouldn't want a weakness removed." Robin turned and thought for a moment, putting pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. "Something is manipulating events. Something wants this war to break out in the city streets, in broad daylight. "

He paused a moment. "Then your premonition," Robin said, turning to Ionela. "Is true."

"Firstborn is coming," Ionela whispered to startled gasps from several of the guards. "And we are just pawns in her game."

* * *

Dracula cried out and a brilliant beam of white energy shot from his chest and slammed into Nosferatu, the two vampires suddenly exploding into a brilliant red burst of energy.

Scores came up on the Titans giant ops room screen, and then the developer credits began to roll.

"So," Rag said. "You feel how I feel right now?"

"I don't know," Yin said. "I feel like I just played Super Columbine Massacre RPG in a room full of Hub City High students." He was referring to a horrible shooting that had taken place in Hub City a few months ago involving a so-called Spiffy Spectre, really a disgruntled emo girl with more guns than brains and a grudge against preps. To this day 'spiffy' was still considered a curse word in that town.

Yin sat back in his chair and sighed, his mind drifting off to his father, his mother, and all the other things that had gone on the past week. He was so lost in thought that the sudden vibration against his left thigh didn't even register.

"Dude, that's your phone," Rag said.

"Oh, huh?" Yin pulled it out and saw that it was his mother. He snapped it open so hard it almost broke. "Hello? Mom?"

"Davis!" came her voice over the phone. "Oh, thank God I got a hold of you."

"Where have you been!" he demanded. "I haven't heard anything from you in almost a day!"

"I'm sorry," she said. "My cell phone battery went dead and I left the charger at home. Your Uncle Garth doesn't have long distance and—"

"Wait," Davis said, "Long distance? What are you talking about? Where are you?"

"I'm sorry," she said. Davis heard her breath a bit, collecting her thoughts. "I thought you'd want to stay with your father. My great aunt passed away Tuesday. I went to her funeral in Star City this morning.."

"STAR CITY!" Davis parroted. "That's on the other end of the state! You drove all the way up there by yourself?"

"My aunt died," Helen repeated, on the verge of tears if Davis heard right. "And after what I said about your father, and then his accident. I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't thinking rationally."

"You think?" Davis spat. He looked at the floor and saw Ragnarök's shadow back away to give him his space. He began to think he shouldn't have snapped at her. "I shouldn't have said that. I got worried about you. You didn't tell me anything."

"Listen," she said, "Where are you?"

Yin glanced at Ragnarök. "Titans Tower," he admitted.

"Have someone there take you to the house. I'll be there soon."

"I thought you were in Star City."

"I was this morning, but I'm coming out Santa Barbara now. I'll be there in about an hour. Please just go home, son."

"All right." Davis looked over at Ragnarök and sighed. "I need a ride home."

"Your house isn't that far from here," Rag said. "Let Beast Boy take you on his moped."

"You sure about that? Don't you have a magic orb thing that can teleport me?"

Ragnarök goggled. "Who told you about that? I—er.. I don't use that except in emergencies."

"Fine," Yin sighed. "The B-Ped it is then."

* * *

Friday morning came. In the two days since the vampires had begun to discover that their weakness to sunlight was gone, skirmishes between the Feral and Enlightened houses had exploded all around Jump County, some even entering the city where a small group of vampires on both sides of the war had ripped through a playground during recess with predictable results. Thankfully, none of the children had been killed, but two lost limbs and five were in the hospital with lacerations.

Robin sat back in his chair and sighed deeply.

"We need Raven," Ragnarök said. "She'll know how to figure this out."

"Cyborg's working on it," Robin said." Give him time."

"That's not what I mean. Cyborg may figure out how the weakness to sunlight was taken away. Everyone knows he's good enough for that." Ragnarök glanced across the room at Starfire and Beast Boy who both looked depressed beyond belief. Even Beast Boy wasn't lightening the mood with a joke. Rag continued. "I mean we need a way to stop them from ever being a threat again. Raven would know how."

"Raven isn't available," Robin spat. "I've tried to call her five times this morning. Nothing. Wherever she is, she's beyond our means to contact."

"Then get Doctor Fate or someone on the line and tell him to find her!" Ragnarök growled. "Glomp it, Tim, we can't just sit back here and let them tear up the city with their stupid war."

"I'm making preparations," Robin said with enough force to defuse some of Rag's anger. "And I already called Doctor Fate. He said that he wasn't able to locate Raven."

A long pause fell over the tower. Robin reread the press release he had sent to the police the day before:

_Reports of vampire sightings are to be taken seriously. Supernatural beings that mimic traditional folklore are fighting amongst each other in Jump County. Standard vampire weaknesses, sunlight excluded, apply. Citizens should prepare themselves accordingly._

So far only three civilian deaths had been reported. Maybe the press release had done some good. There wasn't the wholesale panic that Robin had feared, at least.

Not yet, anyway.

"What about her books?" Rag said after a while. "Maybe we could scrounge up something from Raven's library."

Robin sighed. "Her room is locked. I could override the basic security lock, but she also sealed the room with other locks on the inside. There's no way in without breaking something down."

"Then I'll—"

Before Rag could finish his thought, a blue light began to flash on the console, along with a proximity sensor alert, and the rest of the Titans—Cyborg excluded—leapt to their feet, save for Robin, who just pressed a button on the Ops console.

One of the computer screens turned on to show two figures standing out in front of the tower; one was familiar—a young man in a black costume, his head a flaming ball of energy. Text appeared next to him on the screen:

_Crocket, Isaiah. Codename Hotspot. Honorary Teen Titan 003_

The other figure drew blank glances, largely because of what he resembled. He was a young man, shirtless with skin as red as blood. Horns grew from beneath a mane of silver hair, and his eyes and mouth seemed to glow yellow with fire. Completing the demonic image, a pointed tail coiled behind him.

Ragnarök blinked. "Glomp me sideways, it's Trigon Junior."

Robin shot him a glare through the mask, and waited a moment for the computer to add text next to his image.

_Bloomberg, Eddie. Codename Kid Devil. Honorary Teen Titan 009_

"Kid Devil?" Beast Boy asked. "I don't think I've heard of him."

"He's Blue Devil's ex-sidekick," Robin said, tapping the button to open the door to the Tower. "I worked with him shortly before coming to Jump City. He's changed a bit since then."

"Changed how?" Rag asked.

"Blue Devil had a sidekick?" Beast Boy wondered.

* * *

"Yes! Blue Devil had a sidekick," Kid Devil sighed as Beast Boy repeated the question minutes later. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

Hotspot smirked, his smile more visible now that he'd turned off his flames for the sake of not catching the Titans Tower carpet on fire. "Most people think Blue Devil is a sidekick," he laughed. "He's died and come back to life more times than Superman; you think they'd realize he's really a super hero by now."

"Please, enlighten me," Starfire said. "Is the ability to return from the dead the measure of a hero on this planet? And if this is the case, then does that make our enemy Slade a hero?"

"That's a good question," Kid Devil said. "Let's defer to Robin on this one."

"No it's not," Hotspot said. "Shut the hell up and listen to what Robin has to say."

Kid Devil abruptly pulled a jar… seemingly from his back pocket… and thrust it into Hotspot's face. "Put a quarter in the swear jar."

"What?!" Hotspot blurted, his face twisting into an annoyed frown.

"Blue Devil says any time someone cusses you have to give up some money."

"That's not official Titan policy," Robin interjected.

It did little good, as Hotspot pushed him out of the way and then smacked the jar of coins out of Kid Devil's hand, where it landed on the carpet and spilled its contents across the floor. "Screw the jar, I've got no money!" Hotspot barked. "I mean, we're here to help Robin, not make donations to your Gamestation Go! fund."

"How did you know—?!" Kid Devil blurted, then trailed off as he realized he'd given himself away. "I mean… What makes you think—?"

Robin cleared his throat, cutting the others off. "Can we get on with business?" Everyone nodded, and indicated for Robin to continue. "Sunday night, there was a large-scale mass murder in an apartment building in the city. Monday night we confronted the attacker and discovered some unusual allies. You've probably both heard rumors about what's going on. Unfortunately, these rumors are mostly true."

"Wait, wait," Hotspot interrupted. "Are you saying that this city is infested by vampires?"

"Survey says yes," Beast Boy replied.

Kid Devil blinked. "But that's ridiculous. Everyone knows that there's no such thing as vampires!"

Everyone glanced over at the red-skinned, pointy-tailed demon boy and blinked.

"Um. Point taken," he said, falling to the floor and taking a seat.

Hotspot narrowed his eyes towards Robin. "So what are we supposed to do about it? You already have someone on your team who can fire sunlight beams. Why bring in us?"

Nearby, a door hissed open; everyone craned their necks and watched as Cyborg, a huge lead apron hanging from his neck and a mono-goggle over his biological eye, stepped into the room. Everyone stared at him for a moment, wondering why a man with steel alloy hands was wearing rubber gloves, until he spoke.

"If you guys are done gawkin' at me, I think I've figured out what's going on."

* * *

The items had been delivered to the drop off location on Wolfman Avenue, just as Blight had requested. Inside the storehouse, the hunter smiled as he surveyed his new equipment.

He took inventory: a duo of nanotech flamethrowers small enough to be concealed in his shirt sleeves, a large supply of garlic grenades, a mechanized wooden stake launcher, a receiver that would call in a napalm strike from the Order's impressive array of WMDs, and the ultimate expression of their technology, a cybernetic armor system known as The System.

The System was the most important piece—it offered the user increased aggression, enhanced reflexes, strength, and agility, and would allow him to wage war against them en masse, even with the sunlight weakness gone.

"A glorious battle it will be," he whispered.

* * *

Feral cries of bloodlust rang out as a group of humans fled a gas station, a group of creatures dressed in black jackets and clothing in hot pursuit. One of them slammed into a woman in a white dressed and fell with her. She landed hard on her back and smacked her head into the concrete, becoming disoriented and nearly unconscious. Then her attacker bared his fangs and sank them deep into the woman's neck, her blood leaking from the wound as the vampire drank his fill. The woman's hand began twitching, but soon stopped. The vampire got up and wiped the blood from his mouth, basking in the rays of the sun for the first time in his life…

Only to find a pale man in a brown coat standing in front of him. The man bared fangs of his own and pulled the trigger on the crossbow he had pressed to the chest of the Feral.

The wooden bolt tore through the flesh and slid in between two ribs, piercing the Feral's heart and causing him to explode into a pile of ash.

"It's a trap!" one of the Feral's shouted, and a group of twenty browncoats, armed with silver blades and wooden stakes, some in projectile form, appeared from inside parked cars and from the woods behind the convenience store.

The two sides clashed, black blood hitting the pavement as the fighting grew fiercer, and humans began to run away to avoid getting cut down in the crossfire.

High in the air, a cloud of bats swarmed, watching the Feral and Enlightened fight below. Several of the bats coalesced into the torso of the woman in black sunglasses, her face twisting into a fanged grin.

At this rate, the war would start before the sun reached its zenith.

* * *

"Grah!" The man struggled and squirmed as three Ferals slammed him against the row of glasses, shattering them. The shards cut the man, causing the red sustenance to pour from his arms. The leader and youngest of the three, Glorianna Carpathia laughed cruelly as she lifted the man up with a single hand and pressed him against the mirror. "They say you're a friend of the so-called Enlightened," she said. "I want to know what they're planning."

"I have.. n-no idea what you're talking about!" the man said through his struggles. "I'm not a friend of no freaks—"

Glorianna's free hand whipped out a blade and stabbed it into the man's leg, and he cried out in pain. She pulled the blade out and licked it clean of blood. "You'd be wise to tell me more," she said. "I can control my appetite, but my boys haven't had a human in more than a week. If I turn you loose to them, you won't last long."

"You're sick," the man hissed. "You think you can walk into my bar and boss me around? Fine, drink my blood. Kill me, I don't care!" The man was clearly lying, trembling with fear. But he still didn't talk. Anger began broiling inside her, and Glorianna threw him against the ground, then plunged the knife into his shoulder, then drew it out and threw the knife to her henchmen. She leaned forward and smelled the blood on his shoulder, smiling at him before licking at the wound.

The bartender cringed and tensed up, then punched her in the face, surprisingly strong and staggering the vampire. "You Ferals are all the same. Don't understand anything but bloodletting."

"Then you do know!" one of the henchmen hissed.

Glorianna shrugged off the blow easily and started to attack the bar owner again—then stopped abruptly as the sound of flesh tearing reached her ears and pain shot through her stomach. Her mind replayed what had happened—the bartender had stabbed her under the ribcage with a broken piece of wood from beneath the counter…

The two henchmen stared dumbfounded as Glorianna burned and collapsed into a pile of ash and bone.

"BOSS!" one of the vampire henchmen cried, leaping over the counter only to suffer the same fate as his master. The bartender clearly knew where to poke.

The final vampire backed away, staring down the sharp edge of the wooden stake as he backed away from the Bartender. The wounded man limped towards him, blood running from both knife wounds and making him weak. A smarter vampire would have easily been able to get out of this situation, but then they never made the smart ones henchmen to teenage girls.

The bartender lunged forward, about to deliver the killing blow, and the vampire closed his eyes and began to prepare for the end.

_**BLAM!**_

A bullet tore through the hand of the human, and he fell, clutching the wound as he glared up at the man who had shot him, expecting another vampire.

But it wasn't, much to the surprise of both. The newcomer was a pale, blue-hared man in a long duster jacket, glaring at the vampire with intense loathing.

"I'm sorry to so violently dissuade you from doing a noble service," Blight said, "but I need to interrogate this night-dweller. I have already alerted 911 to your need of medical attention."

Blight grabbed the vampire and used the power of The System to break through a nearby wall with his hands, then leapt from the ground to the fire escape, all the way to the top of the building. A sliver knife flashed from Blight's pocket.

"Listen to me," said the hunter, pressing the vampire against the roof of the bar with his weight and the extra strength his cybernetic suit provided. "You_will _die today." Whether this death is swift and painless or slow and agonizing depends on how forthright you are with me. Tell me**everything** you know about the disappearance of your weakness to sunlight."

* * *

After his fifty-second game of _Wii Bowling_ in the past two days, Davis realized that he just might be in a rut. He hadn't gotten a strike since game twenty-one anyway. He turned off the console and slipped out of his room and found his mother in the kitchen, just having gotten back in. He waited while she placed her coat on the coat rack and followed her into the living room, where he sat across from her in an easy chair.

"How's dad?" he asked quietly.

"He's doing a lot better," his mother said. "The doctors think he'll be able to come home next week, but it will still be a while before he's back up to a hundred percent."

"Yeah…" Davis sighed. "We'll be here to take care of him, right?"

"Davis…" His mother sighed. "I told your father. About filing for divorce."

"What!?" Davis' neck stretched across the room until he was practically in his mother's face. "How could you do that?! I thought you were reconsidering—"

"I did reconsider," she said sternly, "and I can't see it getting any better. What happens after your father recovers? Things will just go right back to how they were before, and next time your father might not survive."

"But who will take care of him?"

"His brother has already agreed to come out and see him through," Helen said. "We won't be here."

"Huh?" Davis blinked, his spirit sinking so low that he could feel his toes flattening inside his socks. "What do you mean?"

"Davis, do you remember why we moved out here?"

"Because of Dad's job," he said. "And because you love the beach. And because you loved to visit your aunt so much.."

"But Aunt Shelly passed away, your father and I no longer see eye to eye. The beach isn't anything special when you live here."

"Where do you want to go then?" Davis asked, letting bitterness creep into his voice.

"For now, we're going to stay with nana and papaw in Kentucky. From there we'll figure it out, okay?"

"No!" Davis blurted. "It's not okay. I don't want to be out in Kentucky. I want to stay here, with the Titans."

"Well, maybe you could join the Titans South," Helen said, frowning but trying to sound upbeat. "They're down in Atlanta, right?"

"No! I don't want to join a bunch of hayseed wannabes!" Davis stood up and started to storm out of the room. He turned as he got to the threshold. "I want to be with the Teen Titans—the _REAL_Teen Titans."

With that, Davis stormed out of the room punching the walls with rubber fists as he went.

* * *

The Titans, including the two honorary Titans, crowded into a huge room in the basement of the Tower that Cyborg had outfitted as a high-tech crime lab. Instruments and machines bearing the STAR Labs logo lined the walls. In the middle of the room sat three tables, on which rested two glass aquariums each. More equipment was strewn around them, all apparently a part of Cyborg's explanation.

Nearby, Cyborg introduced Hotspot and Kid Devil to three tall figures dressed in black and inexplicably wearing sunglasses indoors. Their names were supposedly Mihaela, Lumiere, and Georgia.

"Okay, listen close," Cyborg said. "I've been able to determine the cause to the sudden disappearance of vampires' weakness to sunlight."

"What, disappearance?" Kid Devil blurted.

"I'm about to explain," Cyborg moved over to one of the display screens. "Wednesday morning, it was discovered that the traditional weakness to sunlight shared by all vampires was gone. I've found that there's an extremely complex chemical reagent in the air throughout Jump County to blame for this."

"So is this the result of pollution or is it deliberate?" Robin asked.

"Oh, it's way deliberate," Cyborg said. "I've never seen anything like this compound before. It's physically possible, of course, but some of the chemical structure defies logic to the point that I'm almost willing to believe that the stuff was constructed molecule by molecule. It's an inhalant,, but it is apparently dilute enough harmless to humans and vampires alike."

"I don't get it," Ragnarök objected. "How do you get rid of a psyche-based weakness with a chemical? I thought this was all magic and stuff."

"No," Cyborg said. "The psychic stuff may determine what the weaknesses are, but the implementation of their effects is chemical."

Kid Devil raised a hand. "Could you please translate that into English."

Beast Boy sighed. "He means that vampire brains only tell vampire bodies what makes them die. Actually making them die is something the body figures out." Beast Boy paused for a moment. "Wait a minute, I understood that? Dude, I've been hanging around Cyborg for too long."

"As I was saying," Cyborg said, "the effects only last as long as the chemical is still being inhaled."

He moved over to one of the tables and drew the Titans' attention to the aquariums. Both aquariums on each table contained a single rat, but one aquarium was hooked up to a machine and the other was not.

"I've got low-level UV sources shining on both these rats," Cyborg said. "I've injected both with a little bit of the vampire virus. Now watch this. I've hooked up an air filter to get rid of the chemical."

Cyborg turned on the filter, which began circulating the air in the aquarium. Moments later, the skin on the back of the rat began to steam, and soon after the little creature burst into flames and collapsed into ash, drawing gasps from the Titans and cringes from Mihaela and company.

"Any questions?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah," Beast Boy interjected. "Did you have to kill the little vampire rat? He was kind of cute."

"Any intelligent questions?" Cyborg asked.

"Is there any danger of this chemical being removed?" This from Lumiere.

Cyborg grimaced. "It isn't dispersed by wind easily, but the stuff is highly explosive under the right circumstances."

Hotspot and Kid Devil both gasped.

"Relax," Cyborg comforted them. "You both max out at about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes a lot more heat than that to ignite this. At least 6000 degrees. Funny thing is, once part of it is ignited, the rest goes really quick. When it blows up, it releases a substance that acts as its own catalyst and drastically reduces the amount of energy needed for a reaction. Theoretically you would only have to heat up a tiny portion of the atmosphere to make it all burn up at once. Fortunately, the only quantities dense enough to explode are high in the air, at levels where it would be fatal to inhale, so down here we would be mostly safe."

Everyone took a moment to try and absorb the science, but Robin was two steps ahead of everyone else, moving over to a computer quickly and accessing the police reports from the past two weeks. He pulled up something from the night of Blight's first murders, then shouted loudly as he smashed his fists into the screen. "How could I have been so stupid?" he spat.

"What?" Cyborg said. "What's going on, Rob?"

"Sunday night there was a robbery just outside of the harbor. A STAR Labs high-energy particle cannon was stolen and the crew had vanished except for one man who locked himself in the boiler room and almost died. He told the police he saw a 'lady like death' the night of the theft, but everyone ignored him because they thought he was delirious. I've been letting the police handle it because of the Blight case. But this weapon—it could generate the kind of heat we're talking about. Which means—"

From across the room, Mihaela gasped, as they came to the same conclusion.

"Oh my—" Cyborg trailed off. "She's not trying to _fix_the race, she wants to**kill it off**. She wants to start over!"

"Who? What?" Hotspot asked. "Who is 'she'?"

"Greta Lis," Robin answered. "Also known as Firstborn, the creator of what we call vampires. If she ignites the chemicals, the entire sky would catch fire, and then the chemical staving of the ultraviolet weakness would run out."

Everyone stared at him for a moment.

"We have to stop this war," Robin said at length. "Kid Devil, Hotspot, I'd like to introduce you to Mihaela Grant. She's a friendly vampire. Like Casper with fangs."

Both of the new Titans gasped and turned to see Mihaela step forward, removing her sunglasses and baring her fangs, just briefly. As soon as she closed her mouth, both Titans' jaws dropped, because despite the paleness Mihaela was definitely a stunner.

Kid Devil beamed. "Hot damn!"

Suddenly a glass jar was shoved in his face, Hotspot bearing a wicked grin. "Pay up, hypocrite."

* * *

The bloodshed began at 11:40, when the first wave of black-clad Feral began feasting on civilians in Haney Park. The brown-and-beige-clad Enlightened fired back with stake-guns and other vampire-killing weaponry. Soon fights were breaking out all over the city, and civilians were forced to flee as the war ravaged the city. 

None of this escaped the attention of the media, who filmed the carnage and did nothing to help, throwing proverbial stones at the Titans the whole time.

That was how the Titans first caught wind of the escalation, and soon alarms began blaring at the Tower for incidents all throughout the city. "Lumiere, Georgia," Mihaela started. "I've just got word that the Bartender was attacked earlier. He was stabbed twice and shot in the hand, and he's at the Westron Hospital."

"The Bartender?" Robin asked as everyone ran towards their respective vehicles.

"He's an ally to the Enlightened," she explained. "I want Lumiere and Georgia to head to the hospital and defend him from further attacks as he recovers."

"But—" Lumiere began to protest. "Can one of us not do this job?"

"Go, do it," Mihaela spat. "Both of you need to be there as you'll likely need to charm the hospital staff. I sincerely doubt that either of you could sway everyone who works there. This is not an Anne Rice novel."

Robin nodded, and tossed a small key to Georgia. She caught it and looked up at him puzzled. "You two take the R-Cycle and get to the hospital. I'll ride with Cyborg."

* * *

Explosions rocked down town Jump City as a group of Ferals tossed grenades haphazardly at the Enlightened and ended up exploding windows and cars more often than actually taking down one of their enemies. 

Machine guns went off, silver-tipped bullets tearing through enemies and the police powerless to stop the carnage. Their own guns with lead slugs did very little damage to the vampires, save for the lucky or exceptionally well aimed shots that managed to sever the vampires' brain stems.

There wasn't enough luck or ammunition in Jump City for police resistance to last long.

* * *

"Let's get on the road, man!" Cyborg shouted into his communicator. "Hurry up, Fearless." 

A noise behind the five in the T-Car alerted them to Robin's approach, but it wasn't quite what they were expecting. Instead of his normal costume, Robin was wearing an armored silver-and-black costume that vaguely looked like armor. Actually, it looked a lot like armor.

"What in the world is that?" Cyborg asked as Robin hopped on top of the T-Car and spoke through the sun roof.

"All-purpose anti-supernatural armor," Robin said. "Batman and Jason Blood built it back before I left Gotham. I've kept it in storage until now."

"And you didn't break it out against Trigon_because?_" Beast Boy asked.

"I was too busy interrogating our friend Ozymandias when Trigon took over. I'll remember this the next time a five-story demon is rampaging through the city."

"Am I the only one who is completely out of the loop? Are we talking about Math Demons or something?" asked Kid Devil as the T-Car zipped out of the garage.

"Nope," replied Hotspot. "I've learned to live with it."

* * *

History is always written by the victor, Blight thought. He stood on the precipice of a building that towered over Haney Park looking down as dozens of night-dwellers spilled into the battle field in broad daylight, spilling their black blood as the fight raged on. Several trees in the park were burning already.

Blight took two grenades from his belt and hurled them into the chaos below, then drew Illumina and leapt from the building.

The two explosives fell unnoticed into the melee below, and Blight smiled, waiting a few seconds before a pair of resounding **KRAKOOMS**tore through the combatants, spraying them with garlic. More than two-dozen burnt to ash instantly, the suffocating substance destroying their viral DNA.

Blight twisted in the air, lading hard and letting The System take most of the impact. Then he slashed with Illumina, cutting down the nearest black-coated vampire, then turning and ramming his sword through the chest of an enlightened.

"The Blight is here!" someone cried. "The Ultraviolet Blight!"

Blight turned and shot him in the face with one of his silver slugs. It didn't cause him to turn to ash, but it would immobilize him for a while.

"So many vampires and their easiest common weakness gone," he whispered. "Time for plan B."

The System twisted to his command, the nanotech flamethrowers on his wrists moving to the ready position; Blight began to burn, sending swaths of vampires into fiery graves, all the while weaving in and out of attacks from Feral and Enlightened alike.

So far, so good. His stamina was holding out. The System was working. Today would be a good day for the Order.

* * *

"_Starfire, you and Kid Devil stop the fight in front of Murakami High. Take down the Ferals first, but hit any careless Enlightened if doing so will save humans."_

"_Cyborg and Beast Boy, you're together at Jump City Police department. There's a group of Ferals there trying to turn the police."_

"_Ragnarök, you and Hotspot need to hit Haney Park from the south. Stop the fighting, period. Entomb or immolate them if you have to."_

"_Mihaela and I are going after Blight. Everyone needs to keep an eye out for Firstborn. Any questions?"_

There were none.  
_  
"Okay, then. Titans—GO!"_

* * *

Black-coated Ferals and brown-coated Enlightened clashed in the middle of the streets around Murakami School, paying little head to the fleeing uniformed students that scattered and screamed as the fighting escalated. There must have been at least three dozen vampires on both sides, and few of them were going down and staying down, none of them possessing an easy weakness now that the sun was gone.

"Hot damn!" Kid Devil cried as Starfire swooped down and dropped him outside the chaos. "Browncoats vs. Black coats. It's like _Firefly_ is fighting _The Matrix_!"

"Please, cease with the references to the pop culture and aid me in ending this struggle!" Starfire hurled a flurry of Starbolts into the fray, blasting some of the Ferals back. Most of them were too wounded to get back up, and several were staked by browncoats while on the ground.

"What am I supposed to do?!" Kid Devil shouted.

"They are vulnerable to the fire!" Star answered, using eyebeams to sever the arm of another. "Breath it upon them!"

"Whoa!" Kid Devil cried as a vampire with a large nodachi sword, tried to slice him. "_Ani-Monday_doesn't start till after the weekend, pal." He jumped forward and shoulder-rolled out of the way, then kicked the vampire in the back and sent him careening into the stake of another browncoat. Kid Devil exhaled a stream of fire at a nearby group of Ferals and set their clothing ablaze and they returned fire, blasting with pistols. Eddie jumped and flipped out of the way, punching and kicking with his demon strength. Three bullets tore into him and he hissed in pain, fire escaping through his teeth. He leapt at his attackers, claws bare and tearing through them, limbs and black blood hitting the pavement.

Nearby, a Feral snarled and fired off a rocket, and Kid Devil leapt into action, flipping over the projectile and slamming into the guy with the rocket launcher, exhaling fire into his face. The Feral collapsed, twitching.

A voice behind Eddie alerted his attention to civilians in danger, and he turned to see a young blond girl in a Murakami High uniform, staring as the rocket hurtled towards her.

"CARRIE!" came a nearby cry, and a brown haired boy dive-tackled the girl, the rocket sailing over them and blowing up a dumpster near the school.

"Thanks, David," the girl said. Kid Devil breathed a sigh of relief and threw himself back into the fray. There were still a lot more vampires to take down.

* * *

The T-Car whirled to a stop in front of the JCPD, plowing over several vampires is it went, and Cyborg and Beast Boy piled out, Beast Boy becoming an ankylosaurus and smashing several vampires away before running towards the Dept.

Cyborg put the T-Car on lockdown—which meant surrounding it in a high-heat energy shield that would burn even vampire flesh—and blasted some more as he ran into the building, where several police offers were on edge, guns leveled at doors and windows.

"What in the blazes of hell's inferno is going on in here?" demanded a harsh female voice. Cyborg glanced over to see Detective Simmons.

"What does it look like?" Cyborg shot back, blasting a vampire as it burst through the window. "Vampires are trying to drink y'alls blood and turn you to their undead hordes. And I DON'T want anyone saying _I don't believe in frackin' vampires_, because four days ago I didn't believe in frackin' vampires, but believe me, what we are dealing with ARE FRACKIN' VAMPIRES!""

"We're going to get taxed on pop cultural references after a while," Beast Boy said. "It's coming, mark my words. Dibny may have won the white house, but the Democrats still have the Senate."

Simmons snarled and blasted holes in the heads of three Ferals as the tried to push the door open. Mihaela had learned—through her cell phone—that the ones at the police station were from House Regulus, which meant that they probably wouldn't have any rocket launchers or other heavy arms. Cyborg kept a running tally of his blessings at a time like this.

"What am I doing on the inside?" Beast Boy shouted, crouching between Cyborg and Detective Simmons, "I can't do anything from in here!"

"You're the one who ran in here," the detective said caustically.

"Ugh. Gimme a gun, it's time to see if all the _Umbrella Chronicles _Yin forced me to play is gonna pay off."

"Beast Boy, don't be crazy." Cyborg blasted more vampires as they tried to come in through the JCPD window "You can't just learn how to shoot a gun right from a video game."

"He better learn fast," Simmons hissed, handing him a Beretta 9MM. "There's extra ammo in the storage room," she said. "We'll probably need to head there soon: most of us are nearly spent."

Beast Boy took the gun and moved to a window, firing three shots out and missing twice. The third only hit because he fired it into a crowd of about ten black-coats.

"As much as Beast Boy's missing, I'd say we better get to that storage room fast," Cyborg decided.

* * *

A huge fireball tore through a group of Ferals right before they clashed with the good guys, and fanged mouths screamed in pain and terror as they burnt to ashes abruptly.

"Dude, we're not supposed to kill them," Rag hissed, landing next to Hotspot and sending a flurry of rocks that slammed into backs of some Ferals' heads, cutting off their brain stem. The nerve cells would repair themselves eventually, but the attack dropped them.

Or, it would have repaired, if not for the fact that they were promptly staked through the heart by their Enlightened foes.

"Tell the browncoats that," Hotspot commented, hurling some smaller fireballs towards a nearby cluster of Ferals. The result was pain.

"Whatever," Rag muttered. "Just make sure you don't kill any humans."

The Titan turned as his visor indicated a threat from behind, and Rag screamed and fell to the ground as a Feral dive-tackled him. He blasted rocks from the dirt of Haney Park, hitting the vampire but not doing much damage. It landed, then turned and came back at him, and Rag sent a pillar of earth up, bones cracking as the vampire slammed into it. Rag jerked the column back down, dragging the vampire into the rock and sealing him shut beneath its surface.

"Hopefully they don't need to breath," he thought aloud as he and Hotspot attacked again, rock and fire lancing out and thinning the ranks of the Feral.

* * *

Not far away, Blight was cutting into Feral and Enlightened indiscriminately, his sword and stake launcher held in opposite hands and taking down vampire after vampire. Robin snarled with rage as a browncoat burnt to ashes before his eyes, and Robin dive-tackled the vampire hunter, rolling across the dirt with him for a bit before leaping to his feat.

Blight smashed Robin across the mouth, sending the Boy Wonder reeling and seeing stars, but Robin recovered and fired off his own stake launcher with enough force to knock Blight back.

"So you have vampire hunting armor too," Blight said dropping his own gun and gripping Illumina with both hands. "Let's see whose benefactor has the bigger budget, shall we, Scion of the Bat? I'd much prefer not to have to slay a fellow hero today," Blight said, "If you would judge me and side with the 'Enlightened', you are truly a lost cause."

"You're no hero," Robin snarled. He fastened two birdarangs together and deployed his sword, letting the statement hang for a moment in the air. Then he said, "The _Scion of the Bat._ I like that title," Robin said. "Time to see if I've earned it."

* * *

Mihaela stood, her pistol drawn, ready to take a shot and end Blight's reign forever…

When suddenly a cringe grew inside her, a psychic sense that something was near—something powerful and dreadfully evil. She turned to see a woman in a long black coat, dressed in maroon and wearing sunglasses. The woman strolled up the road, unafraid of and unmoved by the struggle in front of her.

She actually seemed to be enjoying watching.

Mihaela instantly knew who the woman was.

The hesitation prevented her from taking the shot, as Robin's sword clashed with Illumina. The fight was on, and Mihaela couldn't aim at Blight for fear of hitting Robin.

So she turned, leaping from the scaffold and landing in the street in front of the woman in the long coat.

"It's over," Mihaela said, firing five shots directly into Firstborn, staggering the woman backwards and breaking the sunglasses as a bullet struck the bridge of the host body's nose. Black blood fell to the ground.

But Firstborn did not die, she only righted herself and smiled.

"I could not agree more," Firstborn said. Suddenly her coat and the blood on the asphalt sprung to life of its own, transforming into vampire bats and scattering over the area, flying into shops and shelters, anywhere there might be humans. Even the broken glasses transformed into a bat, flying off and scattering the virus further. The bitten humans instantly turned, not taking the hours a normal strain of the virus would to change them.

"MORE!" Firstborn cried.

Her clothes vanished almost entirely, leaving only a maroon leotard, her fingers extending into deadly sharp claws. Deep gashes and scars tore across her body from nowhere, transforming the beautiful visage of a woman long dead into something hideous and terrifying, a reflection perhaps of Firstborn's real self. She lunged forward, raking her claws across Michaela's face drawing blood, then striking her in the stomach. Mihaela collapsed to the ground and glared up at Firstborn.

More vampires poured out of buildings into the park, joining neither side, but simply standing as if spectators to the whole grim sport.

"What is this?" Mihaela demanded. "What is your endgame!?"

The hand that had not scratched her extended, balled into a fist. Firstborn opened it to reveal a small black radio device with a single grey button on it. Mihaela wiped blood from her eyes to see it, and gasped when she realized what it was.

"Burn," Firstborn said to the air, as if trying to command the sky itself.

From far away a brilliant red beam tore across the sky, the heat able to be felt even from Michaela's position on the ground.

Nearby, Robin braced himself against a wall and kicked Blight through a window, then pulled out his communicator. "YIN, THIS IS ROBIN!" he shouted. "IF YOU'RE OUT, GET INSIDE, GET YOUR MOTHER INSIDE, IMMEDIATELY!"

Whether the recipient heard and reacted was anyone's guess; the chemical that took away the vampires' weakness to sunlight ignited, the entire sky becoming a blazing airborne hell, fire shooting from cloud to cloud and dancing from horizon to horizon. Robin gritted his teeth and shielded his exposed face; the dozens of vampires left standing in Haney Park hit the ground from the heat and force of the explosion. The windows of nearby skyscrapers shattered, and hot glass rained down from the sky.

"GET INSIDE!" Mihaela shouted at the top her lungs to everyone in the park. "Cease fighting and get indoors!"

Firstborn walked closer to the center of the war zone, cackling as she did, the asphalt itself showing the impressions of her bare feet.

Some vampires scattered, but the majority continued fighting, Ragnarök and Hotspot doing what little they could to stop them.

Mihaela smelled the air become clear, the chemical's barely perceptible scent vanishing.

She felt the sun's rays grow hotter against the skin on her face, and her blood began to smoke against the pavement. Her throat seemed to swell and ache as she stood up screamed, but her words fell almost entirely on deaf ears.

Her nose twitched as the smoke from her blood rose from the road; the sweat on her forehead turned to steam.

And then she felt her skin begin to burn.

* * *

**End Note:** The endangered Murakami students David and Carrie were created by fellow fanfic writer General Havoc. Go check out his story. 


	25. Blight: Myths and Monsters

_Beta-Read by Legend Maker_

* * *

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

**Blight: Myths and Monsters**

Mihaela had always been taught that showing weakness in public was a sign of a deeper weakness of spirit, and that a true leader would endure pain, if necessary, and not flinch. But now, as the chemical that had madeher immune to sunlight was slowly used up within her body, the pain of the sun's rays became indescribable, greater than anything she'd ever felt. Greater than the pain of being turned.

She began to whimper. She heard a muffled explosion, and then something slammed into her side, and she felt it push her across the street, through brown door which broke into splinters down when her shoulder slammed into it.

"Mihaela!" she heard a voice cry. It was Robin.

She looked up through aching, almost blind eyes to see the outline of the Boy Wonder above her, and heard his grappling hook slowly realign back to the grapple gun.

Robin unfastened his cape and draped it over her, kneeling. His voice was urgent, and she had to concentrate to understand what he was saying because her body ached so much.

"Are you okay?" he asked fiercely.

"I don't know," she replied, and suddenly realized she was quaking beneath the cape. "It hurts. It hurts all over."

Robin exhaled."They're dying."

His voice caused Mihaela to gasp, because it had a deep and melancholy sense of helplessness about it. The tone caused her mind to sharpen and her vision to focus slightly. The floor was made of wood. She could tell by a little light bouncing in beneath the cape he had covered her with…

"Your head and hands are burnt," Robin said after a moment. "Some of it probably got through your clothing, too. Blight is still out there. And so is Firstborn. Stay here, we'll get you medical attention when it's safe."

"She's too powerful," Mihaela rasped. Her tongue felt strange and dry. "You can't fight her."

"I've heard that before," Robin said. "Lots of times. I'm sick of it."

* * *

The sun's rays beat down on the park, and though they did little to remove the chill in the air, they were like fire to all those around Ragnarök and Hotspot. The two Titans watched as all the vampires scattered, moving superhumanly fast—but still far too slow to save them. Their heads and hands burnt first. But not long after, entire bodies began bursting into flames. Many vampires were destroyed by the sunlight in an instant, their clothing too damaged by the battle to provide any real protection.

"No—" Ragnarök stared dumbfounded.

"Idiots," Hotspot hissed. "We told them what was going to happen. We told them to stop fighting, but they were too stupid to listen."

Ragnarök began to call Robin to see where he was, but then, his visor blipped, and he glanced behind Hotspot to the center of the park, where a sole figure moved in its direction.

"Who is that?" Hotspot demanded.

"I'm getting an insanely high threat reading from her," Rag said. "It's more than nine thousand!"

"That means nothing outside of context," Hotspot spat.

"Okay, you want context?" Rag tapped a button on the side to cycle through the system memory. "Your threat level is 150, Robin's is 90 _when he's calm_, and Raven's is about 500."

Hotspot let out one of this universe's expletives and fire danced from his finger tips. "She's a vampire, right? That means she's still weak to fire. I say we take her down before she becomes even more of a threat."

Ragnarök reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black sphere that had a faint violet glow. He cradled it for a moment in his gloved palm before he fastened it into a slot on the back of his left hand.

"What's that?" Hotspot asked.

"A Catalyst." Ragnarök raised his hand and formed a ball of red energy. "An ancient Tamaranean machine that can do basic reality manipulation."

"And you've been holding that back until now _why?_" Hotspot demanded.

"I have my reasons. Never mind that, let's go."

Hotspot ran forward, and Ragnarök matched his stride, charging up a blast of time distortion. He reached the woman—gasping as he realized she was covered in hideous scars and had black, soulless eyes. She was sure happy about something, though.

Ragnarök realized suddenly.

"Firstborn!" he cried, launching his sphere of energy. It slammed into Firstborn, knocking her backwards in slow motion, as if time itself was distorted. And Hotspot blasted at a slow moving target with a massive wave of fire that sent Firstborn careening into the broken fountain. A ball of fire exploded from the wreckage, and Rag and Hotspot ran towards the billowing smoke cloud.

"Would it be genre blind to assume she's dead?" Hotspot asked. As if answering his own question, he fired fiery blasts into the smoke.

Suddenly they came back out and slammed into Ragnarök's chest, sending him sprawling onto the pavement. Hotspot's eyes widened as Firstborn stepped from the smoke, her leotard torn to shreds.

The pieces blackened, flying off as bats and swarming at Hotspot, who blasted uselessly at them. One sank its fangs into his fiery arm and burnt up.

Rag smelled blood literally boiling as he got up, his visor's readout fluctuating wildly as energy began swirling around Firstborn.

"Now what?" Hotspot said.

"We run."

He raised a hand, and a bubble of space-time surrounded both Titans, and immediately took off, moving to the far end of Haney Park, but before they could get there, a beam of energy lashed out from the cloud swirling around Firstborn and struck Rag and Hotspot in the back, sending a flash of light through their vision. Rag saw that Hotspot was unconscious, his flame extinguished. Ragnarök joined him before they hit the ground.

* * *

No sooner had Robin had stepped outside, he was struck in the forearm and sharp pain shot up into his shoulder. He clinched his teeth and glanced to his left from where the attack came. Blight was there, a cut across his cheekbone from being kicked through the window, but otherwise little worse for the wear. A metal chain-whip—not just a chain, but an intricate weave of a silver-colored metal—with sharp metal protrusions extended from Blight's hand out towards Robin. Robin glanced down and realized that the whip was what had struck him, and wrapped around his arm. If not for the metal stabbing into his arm through the armor, causing him to bleed, he might have been impressed by Blight's skill.

"You coward," Blight spat. "Kick me through a window and then run off in attempt to hide yourself."

Blight jerked backwards, the whip digging further into Robin's flesh as he was pulled forward through the strength of the cybernetic armor Blight's body was sheathed in; Blight promptly smashed Robin across the face with his fist.

Robin started to fall, but strained his muscles to stay on his feet, then grabbed a birdarang and flung it at Blight's wrist as he put some distance between himself and the hunter. The projectile struck Blight's hand and caused him to drop the whip, and Robin quickly unwrapped it from his arm.

He didn't have time to treat the wound further before Blight dive-tackled him, and Robin kicked the hunter in the chest, sending him sailing across the street into the post of a stop sign. Robin got up, grabbing his grapple gun in his right arm and using it on a fire escape. He pulled himself up and climbed to the roof, grabbing some first aid gel and gauze from his utility belt.

He barely finished wrapping the cuts when Blight reached the rooftop. Robin would have to grit through the pain and take the hunter down before anything could be done about Blight.

Robin charged, activating his birdarang sword again. Blight chose his own blade, and the two clashed, Robin and Blight's weapons clanging together again and again as they moved across the roof top. Blight pulled off an awkward strike, fueled by anger, that only scraped the toe of Robin's steel-toed boot.

The Boy Wonder made him pay, stabbing the sword into Blight's leg at a place the armor was weaker. Blight hissed and smashed Robin across the face, then charged at him again, the armor apparently negating the damage of the wound.

Or maybe Blight was just as determined—some might say insane—as Robin.

Blight arrived, slashing the sword down, and Robin rolled out of the way, slashing up with his own as he regained his feet. Metal clanged together, but Robin parried too slow and Blight backed off, spinning around and striking from Robin's weak side.

The pain in his arm flared and Robin took a step back to avoid getting sliced open. He found the edge of the roof, and had to step out of the way between the edge and a rather large air-conditioning unit to avoid getting pushed off.

Blight had no trouble navigating the relatively narrow strip of rooftop real estate. Robin backed up and threw a bola at the hunter distracting him long enough to go for Blight's footing. Robin swung the sword with his left hand—there was no room on the right side—and cut into Blight's ankle. The blade didn't break skin, but the attack clearly hurt from the look on Blight's face, Blight's grip weakened for a bit, and Robin kicked the sword out of the hunter's right hand and off the building.

The Boy Wonder's forearm throbbed in protest, the gauze already stained red from the blood exertion had pumped out.

"You feeling lucky, punk?" Robin asked, in his best imitation of Eastwood. He stepped back into a deep stance that kept his injured arm on the far side of Blight and his right arm—and the birdarang sword—pointed directly at Blight's head.

Blight backed away, and Robin stepped forward, not wanting to give the hunter any room to counter attack.

"Short memory," Blight said as the two backed away. He was wary of Robin's sword, but Robin didn't see fear or defeat in his eyes.

Robin was waiting for a concealed weapon to pop out at any minute. But he didn't betray this fear. Instead he shrugged. "Been a rough week."

Blight reached the corner of the roof where he wasn't blocked by the air conditioner, and dove to his left onto the roof. Robin followed, hearing Blight shout something as he turned the corner. What Blight said earlier suddenly made sense, and Robin hit the proverbial deck seconds before Illumina sailed over his head and into Blight's hand.

"That trick never works," Robin growled, getting up.

Blight didn't say anything, instead using the armor to leap to a higher level of the roof. Robin followed with the grapple gun, and almost got skewered on Illumina as he was reeled in.

Their blades clashed again as Robin landed. The fight was far from over.

* * *

Ragnarök had been awake for a few minutes when Hotspot came to, and crawled over to where the armored Titan was crouched against the ground. Blood ran from a cut in the side of his forehead. Ragnarök estimated he had a bruise on his face and probably didn't look much better right now. Rag reached into his belt and dumped a few tiny things on the ruined lawn of the park.

"What are those?" Hotspot asked.

Ragnarök zapped them with more Dark Catalyst energy, and suddenly they grew; three of the objects became books, and one became some sort of black gothic spy glass. One of the books had an alchemy symbol from the cover. Ragnarök winced as he saw Hotspot glare at him. "Did you swipe those from Raven's room?"

"Don't tell anybody," he said. "I'm trying to figure out what she's doing over there."

He picked up the black spy glass and pushed his visor up onto his hair. Then he looked through the lens. On the other side, there were marvels; invisible particles of energy swirled through the air, forming double helix strands through the sky, moving towards Firstborn in the center.

"Some sort of ritual," Rag guessed. "Lots of energy—some kind my visor can't see." Still, Ragnarök had questions. _Why here? Why Jump City? Why this particular park? What was the point of killing so many vampires? _ "Maybe the answer is in these books," he said at length, opening one about vampires."

Hotspot blinked. "Wish Raven was here."

"Join the club."

* * *

Vampires launched themselves across the locker room towards Cyborg, and he blasted at them with his sonic cannon. It didn't do any damage to the Feral, but it stunned him long enough for Simmons to put two slugs in its head.

The vampire fell on the ground and began twitching; Mihaela had told Cyborg that it could last for days—longer unless the bullets were removed soon. Cyborg wasn't sure if he was comfortable letting a sentient creature suffer that way, but they didn't really have time for compassion. More vampires came, and Beast Boy chanced a shot and hit one of them in the shoulder. It must have severed a nerve, because the arm fell limp. Cyborg fired a few more sonic cannon blasts.

"So," Beast Boy thought aloud. "Is this the girl's locker room or the men's locker room?"

"Why do you care?" Regina spat. The building shook with yet another explosion outside. Cyborg hoped the other officers were alright.

"Being in a woman's locker room would just feel weird," he said. Beast Boy transformed into a dilophosaurus and began spitting poison at the Ferals, hitting their eyes and causing them to recoil. (Cyborg had informed Beast Boy time and time again that the dilophosaurus probably didn't really have those neck frills or spit acid like in the movies, but somehow it always had them when Beast Boy transformed into one. Cyborg chalked it up to Beast Boy's short attention span at first, and later to simple adaptation decay.) "We came in here," Regina said before firing off a couple shots, "because the hall that leads to the store room is on the other side of that wall." She pointed over towards the back wall of the shower area. "And you were hopin' I could knock it down," Cyborg said, blasting away some. "I would, but since my sonic cannon is about the only thing keeping them from getting to us at the moment, we need a Plan B." 

Beast Boy assumed human form again. "I'll do it." He transformed into a large animal—Cyborg didn't even look to see what—and smashed the wall down with a loud thud. Regina and the two Titans ran through the hole and into the hallway. Vampires and officers were shooting it out down the corridor. One officer went down and a vampire lunged forward and began drinking away her blood, first from the bullet wound and then from the officer's neck. Regina unloaded her clip into the vampire's head, ejected it, then shoved in another one. The vampire twitched for a moment, and then burst into flames. Cyborg's biological eye widened in surprise. "I guess if their brains become too damaged, they can't heal or something." Beast Boy grimaced at the sight, but nodded at Cyborg. "I think Raven once said that pretty much any mystical creature can be killed by good ol' destruction of the head. Like what you did to squid-face on Sunday."  
_  
__**BLAM BLAM BLAM **_came several more rounds of gun fire. An enormous explosion rocked the entire building, and Cyborg began to wonder where they were getting all their explosives. This particular report sounded like it had surrounded the entire station.

* * *

Ragnarök and Hotspot were backing away from Haney Park as the strange glow around Firstborn began to glow brighter. Arcs of lightning shot off and into the remains of trees, burning them up.

Rag looked through the spyglass again, just in time to see a surge of magic energy push Firstborn up into the air. Strange green particles of a different energy began to wind up from the floor of the park, and Ragnarök looked with his naked eye and saw nothing.

"What's going on?" Hotspot asked.

"Not sure." Ragnarök flicked down his visor and scanned it again, and immediately, there was a match on the energy type. The date on the file was five days ago—Sunday. The energy belonged….

He looked back through the scope, and an explosion of energy surged up, an impression of a body, of massive wings, and of a hideous tentacle-covered face. A familiar voice groaned in pain—and still somehow managed to sound bored while doing so—and then was silenced. All the energy swirling from the shape of the dreaded Old One into a vortex that joined Firstborn's aura.

"What was that scream?" Hotspot asked. "It sounded like the boss from_Office Space._"

"You're not going to believe this," Ragnarök said, "but I think she just… _ate Cthulhu_."

Another brilliant flash of light blinded the Titans, and when it cleared, the aura was gone. Firstborn hovered there, her clothing shredded, her proportions distorting grotesquely. Her flesh darkened and a thick black carapace tore out from beneath her flesh, her arms and legs extended into massive three-story high columns of bone and muscle but tapered to a point, resembling a gargantuan scorpion.

As if to complete the picture, a hooked, stinger'd tail and two massive wings exploded from the growing creature's back, and Firstborn's formerly human torso extended and elongated into a massive demonic thorax and face, a row of impossibly sharp teeth flashing out from a pail visage the color of a decaying body. Her mouth seemed to glow with impossibly red fire. It was a stark contrast to the rest of her matte black body. Silver hair flowed from her hair, like the demonic locusts of Apollyon's army.

The new carapace cracked and dripped with fluids as the transformed Firstborn moved, and a foul smell reached them from fifty yards away.

"What the—" Hotspot said, before launching into a stream of obscenities.

Ragnarök tapped Hotspot's shoulder, and pointed to his visor. The threat level had gone up. It now read 50,000.

* * *

Blight and Robin stopped fighting from roof-top to rooftop; the flash of light from Haney Park drew their attention away from each other. Both of them gasped to see the hideous monstrosity that Firstborn had become.

"It's her!" Blight said. "Firstborn. I have waited a long time for this opportunity."

Robin pulled out his communicator and dialed up Davis.

"Yin, this is Robin. Are you alright?"

"HOLY**COW**_ZOMG_DIDJUUSEETHAT**HUGE**FIREBALL!" came the voice over the communicator.

"Yin," Robin repeated. "Calm down. I need you to stay where you are. This has gotten way beyond your league. I repeat, stay at home."

"But—"

"That's an order. Robin out."

Taking advantage of Robin's distraction, Blight slammed into Robin, knocking him down, and ran off towards the park before Robin could get up off the rooftop. But before Blight could get far, Robin pulled out his grapple gun and fired it, smacking into Blight's back and knocking him flat on his face. Then the gun caught against an antenna on the roof where Blight was, and Robin jumped as it reeled in, swinging against the side of the building and running up the wall with the pull of the gun's motor aiding his ascent. He jumped over Blight and landed between him and Firstborn.

"If you want to deal with that thing, you're going to have to go through me first!"

* * *

Simmons emptied the last three shots in her revolver, dropping a vampire just as another showed up, sinking her teeth into the flesh of a nearby officer. Cyborg tried to tear the vampire off of the cop, but before he could, the vampire's fangs sank deeper into the flesh of the officer, and he tore a chunk out of the man's trachea.

"Big mistake!" Cyborg growled, putting the sonic cannon right in the vampire's face as blood ran down her chin. He fired, the beam sending the Feral careening down the all where she crashed against yet more Ferals.

"We're almost to the store room," Simmons called. Cyborg glanced back and saw Beast Boy become gorilla and break a locked door down. They emptied from the narrow corridor into a two-story room with desks all over the place. There was a higher balcony level where several offices seemed to be.

"Dispatchers room," Simmons said. "We need to expand the building, but the State won't allot any more money over here because the idiot Mayor insists we remain a sanctuary city."

Cyborg didn't say anything, instead blasting away at vampires as they tried to crowd into the room.

Suddenly he heard glass breaking above them, and a horde of vampires leapt from the offices on the floors above—some of them wearing police uniforms—and crashed down around the small party. Only five remained, Simmons, three patrol men, and a young intern dispatcher. The others were either off duty, out somewhere else, or… dead

"Get the door unlocked," Cyborg yelled.

"Chief has the key," Simmons said. "I was hoping you could open it."

Cyborg glanced at Beast Boy, who turned into a rat and darted towards the door. Just as he got there, he leapt, transforming into a gnat and flying through the crack beneath the door. Seconds later, the door unlocked and Beast Boy kicked it open.

The officers ran in, opening boxes and shoving clips into their guns. Cyborg stayed outside, transforming his left arm into his emergency Autocannon, like a miniaturized minigun that he began using to hold off the vampires.

They kept swarming in, however, and Cyborg wouldn't be able to hold them off much longer.

Just as he thought that, he felt a push at his back, and the officers came storming out, unloading clip after clip into the vampire hordes, black blood falling on the pavement as vampires fell to the ground in too much pain to keep going.

Simmons came out, carrying a small assault rifle, and began tearing through the nearby vampires. A symphony of gun reports and the sound of bullets rending flesh ensued, bones breaking in the hail of lead.

Beast Boy kept carting out extra ammunition, but no matter how fast the cops fired, no matter how many Ferals dropped, more seemed to come through to take their places.

"The're like freaking Zombies, man!" Beast Boy said, firing his own gun into the horde uselessly. They were now climbing over their wounded at this point, the injured were piling so high.

"Death!" one of the Ferals cried. "Death outside from the sun, death in here from the hail of lead. We cannot escape it."

He was promptly staked through the heart by one of his nearby allies.

"I guess that's why they're called Ferals," Regina Simmons said dryly.

"Wait, did he say the sun was killing them?" Beast Boy asked. "But that's not possible… unless."

Cyborg goggled, playing back through is memories, the sound he'd heard—the big explosion that rocked the building. He suddenly realized that after that, all the explosions outside had ceased. What he'd heard was the sky catching fire.

"That means someone fixed the kill switch," Cyborg shouted, his face betraying his excitement.

"What?"

Another hail of bullets drowned out the conversation.

Beast Boy turned into a bird and rocketed up towards the ceiling, some of the vampires taking potshots at him. He weaved in and out of bullets and reached the sealing, then transformed again, this time into a Tyrannosaurs Rex. "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" it growled, despite the bullets tearing into its side.

His feet fell, crushing several Ferals and shaking the whole building, but his head went through the roof, literally, breaking the ceiling and letting the light in.

"Into the store room!" Cyborg called. All the officers ran back, diving into the tiny room as the ceiling crumbled down around Beast Boy.

Cyborg watched as the sunlight beamed in, the Ferals inside exploding into a pile of ash. Some of them hit the wall to stay in the shadows, but Beast Boy grabbed them wit his mouth and threw them into the sunlight.

He transformed back into a green human, staggering into the Store room holding his side. Most of the wounds were just bruises, but one of the bullets had grazed him, slicing his flesh open.

"Yeah, let's never do this again," said Beast Boy.

Just then, Cy's communicator began buzzing, and he opened it. "Get back to the park now," Rag said. "Robin's AWOL and there's a rather large problem."

"What problem?"

"Firstborn is now a giant scorpion monster."

Somehow, this didn't surprise anyone present.

* * *

"Stay at home," he says. Yin threw his stuff down on his bed, plugged his DS into the wall, and pulled on his long-sleeve Yin-Yang shirt, the armored jacket Robin had given him, and the Yin-Yang bandanna he used to keep his hair out of his face.

He pulled on his gloves and goggles and turned and began storming out of the house.

"Where are you going?" asked Helen Parsons' hair as Davis reached the front door—the blond locks covered her face as she was stuffing her travel bags full of the things they were taking to Kentucky.

"Out. Robin needs me," Davis lied.

"Davis, we're leaving for the airport in just a few minutes. Our plane leaves at—"

"Go without me," Davis said. "I'm staying here. The Titans are in trouble."

Thinking quickly, Davis stretched across the room and clicked on the television. A news helicopter was showing footage of some massive scorpion-like creature in the middle of Haney Park, and Davis saw Ragnarök and one of the Honorary Titans crouched at a corner near it. Rag seemed to be going through some book lying on the asphalt. Davis wanted to know why he wasn't doing something about it.

"Idiot." Yin glared. "He's all show and no substance. No surprise he's a Democrat."

"Davis, watch your mouth," his mother said. "You know your uncle Micah is a—"

Davis turned and glared at his mother. "I don't care!" he shouted, perhaps more with more vitriol than he had intended. "Uncle Micah in Kentucky can vote for whoever he wants, mom. I just need to go. I don't want to go to Kentucky. I want to help the Titans."

"Davis, you.."

His mother must have looked up from her packing at this point, because she stopped mid-sentence and walked over to the TV screen. "W-what is that thing?" she asked.

"Vampire demon, I think," Yin said. He quickly moved towards the door and slipped out while his mother stared entranced at the television. As the door started to shut, he heard his mother scream after him, but Davis ignored her. There were people in danger, and Davis had super powers.

Davis just hoped Stan Lee was right about what came with them.

* * *

Collateral damage is defined in a war as damage inflicted upon persons and property that weren't the target of the military force. In this case, it meant the old General Horatio Hotel, a block away from Murakami High. One of the columns out front that supported a good chunk of the building's weight had been hit by a stray rocket when the sun became lethal and all the vampires either fled the scene or died.

Starfire felt her heart aching for the innocents that had died, but knew there was nothing that could be done. Kid Devil immediately ran and held the building up. Starfire marveled at his strength, for it was exceedingly rare among even Earth's super-humans.

Unfortunately, not long after the column crumbled, a fire broke out in the building. Starfire flew from window to window, pulling people out of the building and flying them down to safety.

"Hurry up, Star!" Kid Devil cried. "I can't hold this pillar up much longer!"

"I am making the haste," she said, "but I do not have the ability to move as fast as ones such as Mas y Menos and the Kid Flash."

"It's okay," Eddie sighed. "I'll only need a few hundred hours of chiropractic therapy when this is over."

Suddenly, a powerful force slammed into Eddie and knocked him out from underneath the pillar. He turned to shout an exclamation of disapproval, but was surprised to see Starfire in the spot where he had been standing.

"Go," she said. "My race is stronger than even what your powers make you, and you can tolerate the fire better than I."

"I'm on it!" Kid Devil said, rushing into the burning building like it was an afterthought. As long as the temperatures didn't get much above 900 degrees, he was safe.

Soon after he came out with the last person he could find alive, Starfire pointed with one of her hands to his communicator. It had somehow miraculously survived the heat. Robin and Cyborg's craftsmanship was impressive. Then again, Robin said his had literally endured a trip to hell and back.

"Mine was lost in the fight earlier," she said. "Answer it."

Eddie removed it from his belt. "Kid Devil here."

"KD, it's Ragnarök. I need you and Starfire back at the park now. We've got a big problem."

* * *

Wind whipped through his hair as Robin backflipped up onto a rooftop receiver unit and then jumped again when Blight ran at him, slashing with Illumina and cutting the antenna off. It clattered to the roof with a heavy metallic thud. Blight turned and flashed a beam of light at Robin, who shielded his eyes and activated the strongest setting on his mask's built-in UV filter.

He breathed heavily as he backed away from the hunter, keeping Blight in his field of vision. He was growing tired much faster, and probably had bruises all over his body underneath the black fabric of his armor. Worst of all, his forearm throbbed with pain from the strain of continued use despite its injuries.

Robin grimaced, and dropped to his knees. The fight had gone on far too long already. "I give up," Robin said with an exasperated sigh. "You win."

He removed the sliver-and-black R-Emblem from his chest and tossed it at Blight's feet, then put his hands on the ground and started breathing heavily.

Blight stooped and reached down, picking up the logo. "You have a reputation of not giving up easily," Blight said. "It's an honor to be the first to actually beat you into submission. Unless of course, this is some sort of trick."

Blight glanced around. "Maybe one of your friends expects to pop up behind me and surprise me. That's not possible right now, not while I'm jacked into The System."

"Is that what you call it?" Robin asked. "I assure you, regardless, my friends are nowhere nearby."

"We'll see," Blight said, flicking the logo over in his hand.

"Actually, the logo itself is the attack," Robin said.

Blight's eyes widened and he looked down just long enough before the emblem exploded into a burst of light and smoke, a mixture of knock-out gas and garlic powder. The garlic had no effect on Blight, but surprise of the blast staggered him, and Robin jumped forward with his breath held through the cloud of gas, and delivered a powerful flying kick into Blight's chest. The collision rocked Robin, and Blight's hand struck him in the side.

Blight took the brunt of it, though, staggering back towards the edge of the roof. Robin heard a second explosion just as Blight went over the edge of the building, and his eyes widened when a grappling hook shot out of the quickly-dispersing cloud and nearly slammed into his chest. He glanced back just to see it reel back in, grabbing him by the shoulder where his cape would usually be and jerking him forward; before he could get it off of his shoulder, Robin went over the roof too, realizing then that Blight had stolen his grapple gun. He heard the hook clatter to the rooftop and latch onto something, the rope going taut.

More wind rushed up at him, then he slammed into Blight, and grabbed a hold, punching Blight in the stomach as Blight clinged the grappling hook and kneed Robin in the chest and legs. Robin struggled to climb up the hunter, getting elbowed in the face repeatedly as he grabbed the gun and flicked a switch on it. Suddenly the cord began to loosen again, and Blight and Robin fell, Robin clinging on to the vampire hunter for his life.

They jerked hard when the gun ran out of rope and swung towards the side of the building, slamming into it with enough force to make Blight's grip slip. Robin glanced down and felt his vision narrow. They had to be at least a good sixty stories up yet.

Robin was out of grapple guns.

Abruptly, something gave away and they free-fell, at the mercy of gravity for a few perilous seconds. The grapple caught something else, and the jerked to a halt. But whatever it caught was far from their own center of gravity, and the swung around the side of the building like a pendulum undulating back and forth.

Robin eyed something on the perpendicular side of the building and shifted his weight that way. It was a scaffold. They span around in mid air, letting Blight see it as well, and used his own weight to build enough momentum. He let go, and Robin and Blight crashed onto the scaffold, causing it to shake wildly. Robin forced his inner ear to clam down and began attacking Blight as fast as he could with all of his natural weapons.

But Blight had armor, and thumped Robin in the spine. Robin broke contact and reached the other side of the scaffold, which was very narrow but ran most of the length of the building.

He slammed two birdarang together and drew up the sword, but when he looked up he saw Illumina flying into Blight's hands. Robin growled and sliced at Blight, inadvertently severing one of the chords holding the scaffold up. Blight's blade clashed with his, and Robin and the hunter traded blows. Robin's blade parried, but Blight backed away before a counterstrike could come, the System enhancing his reflexes. Illumina sliced into the other middle cord, and Robin felt the scaffold's middle dip slightly from the weight of Blight and himself. Robin hacked at Blight again, but this time Blight parried and Robin's weakened body couldn't hold on to the sword. His blade went flying out of his hands and fell towards the street below.

Robin grabbed Blight's wrists before he could slice again with Illumina and forced him back with a shoulder rush. He dug one of the prongs on his glove into a pressure point on Blight's wrist, and Illumina clattered the metal surface. Robin kicked it off the scaffold with a growl. "If I don't get one neither do you."

A fist across the face from Blight's free hand made Robin see stars, and Blight kicked back towards the middle of the scaffold. Robin glanced up in time to see Blight raise a hand. But before he could, Robin extended his own hand and shouted. "ILLUMINA!"

The sword whirled up, slashing through the support cord of the scaffold on Blight's side, nearest the building. The whole thing began to list towards Blight, and Robin barely caught Illumina as it sailed into his hand.

"You would think something like this would be voice-encoded," Robin said. "Very sloppy of this Order you work for." Robin walked forward, careful not to make the scaffold list any more than it already was. "Tell me about them while you're at it."

Blight glared at Robin with hatred, then reached to his belt and began tapping a button. Several tiles on the shoulders of his cybernetic armor that had previously been dark green lit up and glowed, and Blight's face elongated, his brow furrowing and his eyes widening with rage.

Robin began to worry.

"It's called the Order of Saint Dumas," Blight said. Robin began to grow worried as an edge crawled into Blight's voice, and it began to become gravely. The pitch increased also, lending the impression of madness. "We train for years under the hot sun and in the freezing cold to become the greatest fighters in the world. And then we purge towns of evil."

"From what I've seen," Robin said carefully, "your methods are lacking."

Blight chuckled bitterly. "I was never a good fighter as a child. I have little natural aptitude and learned what I learned slowly. I would never have been considered by the order if not for my… gift." A faint glow flashed from Blight's skin to let Robin know what he was talking about.

Blight stepped forward, and Robin watched the scaffold to make sure it wasn't going to fall.

The vampire hunter smiled. "Illumina was forged to destroy the vampires. When they found that I shared the sword's ability to absorb the rays of the sun and use them against the vampires, they began immediately to train me to defeat the Order's most troublesome and persistent foe. Previous hunters of the night-dwellers were always killed, or worse, turned into one of them. I was different. I couldn't be turned. My very blood is poison to a vampire. They saw me as a Godsend. Saint Eldritch, the heir of Saint Dumas himself, blessed me. They gave me access to all their recourses. Including this." He tapped the armor. "The_System_."

"Just technology," Robin said, allowing a smirk. "The real measure of a fighter is what he can do without it." Robin lunged forward, slamming a shoulder into Blight's chest. Blight seemed not to feel it at all, and lifted Robin by the scruff of his tunic.

"The Order is willing to accept dishonor in the fight against evil."

"I hope you're willing to accept property damage," Robin spat, and then pressed the button of a small blue-and-white device in his hand. Immediately an electro-magnetic pulse flashed out, tearing into the circuitry of Blight's cybernetic armor and the not-so-cybernetic armor Robin was wearing. Blight spasmed as his advantage became nothing more than a heavy jumpsuit.

Robin cursed himself, however. Because a split second before he'd activated the EMP, Blight had jumped.

The two slammed into the far end of the scaffolding where the only cord left on that in broke with a muffled pop and the whole platform began to fall. Gravity took hold of Robin and Blight yet again and the two sailed downwards. Robin forced his stiffened armor to move, and pressed two buttons simultaneously on both sides of his belt. The armor popped off—a mechanical failsafe Robin had installed in case the armor failed electronically—and Robin's standard colors were revealed underneath. He twisted, reaching out and grabbing the nearest thing he could find, which happened to be one end of the scaffold cord, falling at the same rate as he was. Robin realized that it had broken at the top instead of at the scaffold itself.

The two remaining cords held, and Robin swung across the sky above the city street, his gloves sliding—despite his vice-like grip—towards the end of the rope—despite most of it being much higher than he was.

As he reached the end of his arc and began to slide down the metal cord faster than he could think, Blight's immobile body slammed into the roof of a bus, crashing through into the seats below. Pain shot through Robin's arms as he did his best not to slice his own arms off with the cord. Finally he let go from the pain, falling two stories and landing on the same bus as softly as he could, then falling off the bus into a bush in front of the building.

Robin lay there for a moment, absolutely amazed that he was even alive. Excruciating pain ate away at every inch of his body, but that could be fixed. He wasn't dead.

Blight probably wasn't so lucky.

* * *

Robin felt his legs quaking as he arrived in Haney Park, and thought for a moment that he would just fall over dead right there. But Batman had trained him better than that. Robin looked up and stared at the hulking form of Firstborn—this monstrosity it had become. It seemed to be breathing heavily, and Robin followed a trail of figures that were running over to it and then bursting into a flock of bats. The swarm of rodents flew into the air and joined into the creature, melding with its flesh.

"She's feeding," he realized. He guessed that was why she hadn't started tearing up the town yet. Robin glanced to the side, and saw Ragnarok and Hotspot on a corner near the park, peering out from behind a building. Robin realized it was just across the street from where he had left Mihaela.

Robin staggered over to Rag and Hotspot, falling to his knees. He noticed the books and black spyglass and narrowed his eyes.

"How did you get those?"

The question seemed to startle Rag out of his reverie of staring at Firstborn through the spyglass, and Robin glared at him. "Those are Raven's," Robin said.

"I used the Dark Catalyst to get inside her room." Rag looked away from the monster. "Glomp, Robin, you look like hell."

"I feel like it."

Ragnarök grimaced and reached into his pocket, removing a small white mechanical sphere that looked similar to the Dark Catalyst. "I can fix that," he said.

The White Catalyst flashed, briefly blinding the Boy Wonder, and then materialized in the back of Rag's glove. He extended that hand and a white energy washed over Robin; Robin felt the pain ease, the wounds on his arms, especially the one Blight had inflicted with the whip, sealing up. Robin stood up, but was suddenly overcome with fatigue. He wished he had a bed, but knew there was no time to rest.

"Sorry," Rag said, apparently sensing Robin's drowsiness. "The WC does that to you."

Hotspot stifled a chuckle. "Heh. If you'd said that in Europe it would have meant something else entirely."

Firstborn moved, crouching low and sending a rumble through the ground as it moved its gargantuan legs. A new rush of adrenaline hit Robin's brain and the fatigue began to melt away. He pulled his back-up communicator from his belt and set it to call all the Titans in the area except Davis. "Titans," he said. "I need everyone back at the park, now."

"Already on our way, Fearless," came Cyborg's voice.

* * *

Cyborg and Beast Boy had been expecting something bad when they got to the park, but the monstrosity that greeted them from a mile away wasn't what the expected. "Think I could transform into that?" Beast Boy asked. "Not that I'd want to."

"No way," Cyborg said. "Even you're more original than that… thing."

By this point, Firstborn was no longer feeding; it had begun moving, smashing through buildings near the park as if to make a point, and then walking into the bay, making a line towards Titans Tower.

"That's not good," Cyborg said, even as waves crashed down on the ruined skeleton of the park.

"That's… Yin!" Beast Boy said. Cyborg had the car auto navigate as he jerked his head to the direction Beast Boy pointed. Sure enough, the kid was bouncing along the street like a human slinky. Suddenly he left their field of vision; a split second later, a thump sounded on the T-Car roof.

Davis' face appeared against the windshield on the passenger's side, smushed flat and slightly concave. "Mind if I hitch a ride?" he asked.

"Yes!" Cyborg shouted. "But since I can't shock your scrawny rubber butt off my car, just hang on tight."

Yin's head vanished back to the top of the car, and Cyborg steered the car through a sharp curve in the road; then Haney Park was dead ahead. Firstborn was already nearing the midway point between the coast and Titans Island.

Suddenly, a tiny orange-and-purple speck streaked across the sky, a green trail following; it flew out over the tower and then turned, flying back towards Firstborn. Cyborg realized that there was a red speck dangling from the flying speck, and then both began whirling through the air.

The red speck—Kid Devil—went flying off towards Firstborn, slamming into its face and sending her careening back onto its hind legs. Its massive stinger'd tail slammed into a warehouse on the coast as it tried to balance itself.

The balancing act was short lived, as the other speck—Starfire—slammed into the bloated underside of the monster Firstborn had become, launching it backwards and onto the mainland; the ground rumbled with the impact, and several of the older buildings nearby crumbled.

"Titans, GO!" Robin's voice cracked over the speaker of the T-Car.

Fire blasted out from two specks, which were quickly growing into Hotspot and Kid Devil. Starfire peppered Firstborn with Starbolts. Only Ragnarök and Robin seemed not to be attacking.

The T-Car slid into the center of Haney Park, skidding to a halt where the fountain used to be and now lay as a pile of damp blackened stones.

Cyborg jumped out and ran towards the others, not noticing the hesitation of Beast Boy and Yin until he was well ahead of them.

* * *

"Wait, hold up!" Yin said, leaning against the car and panting heavily. "That was a rush! I'm freezing."

"What's wrong with you?" Beast Boy shouted. "I thought you were leaving for Kentucky anyway."

"Robin told me to stay at home, so I turned on the TV and decided you could use my help."

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Dude, Robin is usually smarter than all of us. He is trying to protect you."

"He's trying to get me sent off to Kentucky," Yin said. "I don't want to go out there. I don't want to join the Titans South and have everyone think I'm a useless hillbilly superhero protecting corn farms from metahuman rednecks."

Beast Boy frowned, then glanced down at Firstborn. There was something wrong with way she was fighting, he thought. She seemed to be moving defensively when Cyborg's readings from the T-Car showed she had enough energy to waste them in an instant. It was almost like she was protecting something.

The other thing was, she was falling back, moving towards the center of the park—where he and Yin were standing—as if it had some significance. Or maybe she was just looking for an open area in a city full of buildings and steep hills. Dude.. Beast Boy didn't like all this strategic thinking.

One thing was clear, though: Firstborn was distracted, which meant…

"Yin," He said. "Remember what we tried against squid face on Sunday?"

"You mean launching the manhole-cover at him before he made me crazy?" Yin glanced over and saw Robin run up a tentacle that shot out of Firstborn's side and slash at her with his sword.

"Yeah, that!" Beast Boy thumbed to a pair of metal street-lamp poles at the edge of the park, and a nearby fallen tree. "I think we should give it another shot—this time against an enemy that's actually a solid object."

"What if we hit one of the Titans?" he asked.

"Dude, I can aim way better than that. You should have seen me with that GLOCK earlier."

"Hah!" Yin laughed a bit. "The day you shoot a handgun is the day Charlton Heston resigns from the NRA."

* * *

Beast Boy flashed a fanged grin and ran off towards the tree. Yin followed, and Beast Boy assumed the form of a gorilla as they got there, which used its strength to pick up the fallen tree. Beast Boy broke it to a sharp point on one end.

"Will a tree even work?" he asked.

"Hey, she's a vampire," Beast Boy said. "And trees need sunlight to grow. So it's like wooden stake with a bonus shine damage."

"If life gives you fantasy creatures, make an RPG," Yin thought aloud.

He stretched his arms out, wrapping both around the two streetlights on opposite sides the street, and then twisting end-over-head until there was plenty of tension in his body. Beast Boy pulled the tree back, carefully aiming the shot. Yin cringed as pain shot up his arms and legs into his shoulders and lower back.

"Ready yet?" he asked.

Beast Boy made a bit of a growl and kept pulling until Yin thought he couldn't take it anymore.

Finally, the pressure vanished and Yin snapped forward, spinning all the twists out as he launched the tree. It sailed in a huge parabola over the park, and the Titans scattered as Firstborn followed their retreating. She—if it could still be called female—goggled in fear as she saw the projectile. The massive stake tore through her carapace with a sickening tearing noise that Yin could hear from all the way over where he was. Black blood began spewing out of the wound, and Firstborn cried loudly.

Its eyes flared, and beams lashed out, tearing up the pavement in front of them. Beast Boy and Yin scattered left and right as the beam tore down the street. They looked back up as Firstborn's eyes flared yellow. Yin felt a familiar buzzing in the back of his head, but couldn't place it.

"Dude, what the heck?" Beast Boy rubbed his head as he crawled over. Yin noticed he had a cut across his face. "She's using that same mind-warping stare that Cthulhu did."

"Really?" Yin stared at it. "Why isn't it making me go crazy again?"

Beast Boy grinned again, and Yin arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"I was just thinking, maybe the reason it doesn't work on us is that we're all really insane like in that episode of _Extreme Twilight Zone 2019_. And if you're insane now, I guess that officially makes you a Titan."

"Um. Joy?" Yin asked dryly, not feeling any at all.

* * *

Firstborn reeled and shrieked as the sharpened tree slammed into it, and black blood oozed from the wound. It staggered and fell to its massive 'knees', hissing at the ground as it lay there.

Robin stared up, avoiding the spray of blood as he tried to assess how badly the creature had been damaged. He shot a glance in the direct the projectile had come from and saw Beast Boy and Yin running his way.

Firstborn drew up, arching its back like a cornered feline. It breathed in a lot of air, enough to cause a wind to wash over Robin and the other ground-based Titans. Then Firstborn exhaled, a swarm of bats rushing out, glaring from behind red eyes. They tried to sink sharp teeth into Robin's flesh, and he began batting them away with his bo-staff. Starfire flew by, blasting others out of the air, and torrents of fire from Kid Devil and Hotspot burned more away.

Yin and Beast Boy got there, the latter transforming into an animal they had encountered on one of the planets in Tamaran's star-system months earlier, a large bear-like creature with tentacles protruding from its back and a mouth on its belly. Beast Boy just used the tentacles, lashing them out to tear the bats apart.

Yin just dove for cover, swatting at any bat that got near him. He ran by Robin, apparently trying to get behind Cyborg.

"I thought I told you to stay at home," said Robin.

Yin shot a glance over his shoulder. "Did you really think I'd miss a giant vampire demon monster? Besides, me and Beast Boy were the first to do any real damage to it."

Shaking his head, Robin joined Yin behind Cyborg, just as Firstborn spat some caustic blue substance onto the road. Cyborg used a sonic wave to knock it away from them.

"Only because we were distracting it," Robin said.

"Will you two stop arguing for a minute and help out?" Cyborg growled, blasting missiles from his shoulders at their gigantic foe.

"What I wouldn't give for a Mary Sue to show up and rescue us right about now," Kid Devil said, slicing through the last of the bats with his claws. "Or even a Gary Stu." He waited for a moment as if his words were supposed to be a cue, but nothing happened.

Kid Devil launched himself towards Firstborn's legs, his tail fluttering in the air.

Nearby, the Fourth Wall crumbled, and Blight staggered out from behind the wreckage, clutching his side with an arm that was clearly broken. The other arm was hanging loosely at his side, out of socket.

"You're alive," Robin said, his eyes widening slightly despite his attempt to avoid betraying his shock.

"No thanks to you, Boy Wonder."

"What do you want?"

Blight tilted his head and laughed. "Set my arm and get whoever healed _you_ to do the same to me."

Robin glanced across the street to Ragnarök, who was trying to stop Yin from cowering behind him. Apparently proximity to the beast had decimated the courage that had made Yin ignore his orders.

"Get off me!" Rag shouted.

Yin just shivered. "What is that thing!?"

"The result of Firstborn eating Cthulhu." Rag grabbed Yin's head and started pulling, but only ended up stretching Yin's neck. "Now get off of me so I can fight."

"Eating Cthulhu!?"

"So," Blight said, jarring Robin back to the situation. "The green-armored one is the healer. You're short Raven, I take it."

"I'm not helping you," Robin said firmly, just as Kid Devil whizzed by, airborne and not in control of his momentum. He slammed into a car that had been abandoned in the middle of the street and groaned something about a hot bath.

"Yo!" Rag called. "Robin, something's going on."

Robin turned his attention back to Firstborn, who seemed to be on the verge of keeling over dead. Instead, her tail shot straight up into the air. "Offspring," it said, a gravely female voice. "Off—spring."

Suddenly, the bulge that had developed in Firstborn's lower abdomen contracted, and the tail launched four objects in rapid succession up into the air, sending them flying in the four cardinal compass directions.

"What the snorkel is going on?!" Rag shouted. "Her energy levels just dropped drastically, but those things have enough to tear the city apart. Whatever they were." He tapped on the side of his visor.

"She's reproduced," Blight said. "I've been expecting this. I was so stupid!" he fell to his knees and gritted his teeth. "She was manipulating us from the start. She wanted as many vampires to die as possible…"

"Why?" Robin demanded. "What good would all that death do her?"

"Any time a night-dweller is destroyed, the magic that bound the virus together is released. She used the coded magic to absorb a much greater source of magic—the very Elder God that you killed five days ago. She probably was the one who _released _it."

Robin narrowed his eyes. "What do we have to do to destroy them?"

"Take their heads," Blight said. "Nothing can survive destruction of the brain."

Robin saw a flash of an orange-and black mask in his mind. "Not necessarily," he said.

"It will work!" Blight growled, then clutched his side and hissed in pain. "Heal me now or I _will_die."

"We'll handle things."

"You don't get it!" Blight coughed, blood trickling down his mouth. "Illumina, my sword, was forged to kill vampires—all vampires. It doesn't just absorb sunlight, though. It was imbued with the magic to banish Firstborn's consciousness—forever. You send your friends to take out the Offspring, and I'll destroy this beast once and for all. You have my word I'll leave Jump City after this. Please…"

"I don't trust you."

Blight's face read hatred. "Then you'll all likely burn in hell by nightfall."

Robin hesitated, taking a deep breath. He saw the intensity in Blight's eyes, and sighed. It was no longer the intensity of a zealot on a misguided cause, but the desperation of a man who knows what needs to be done but can't convince anyone else.

"Alright," Robin said. "Ragnarök, heal Blight. Then come with me. We're going to split up and go after those Offspring."

* * *

Robin looked at a small screen on his R-Cycle, and then back to the Titans. "Beast Boy and Kid Devil, One of the Offspring is on the East side of town near Precipice Rock. Find it and destroy it." Robin was referring to a massive stone outcropping from which Jedediah Jump, brother of Thaddeus Jump, had leapt to his death from to escape the Apache. (He wasn't really being attacked by Apache at the time; historians tended to believe that Jedediah suffered from hallucinations.)

Robin turned to Starfire. "One of them landed on Titans Island," he said, thumbing out over the bay towards their home. "Take Hotspot with you."

He turned to Cyborg. "Go after the other one, on the South end near Westron Mall. Vic. Blight says if you take out the head, it will die. As for the last one…" The R-Cycle roared beside the Boy Wonder, and he hopped on and drove over towards Ragnarok. "Rag, use the Dark Catalyst to fly and follow me."

"Wait, what about me!" Yin demanded.

"Go home," Robin growled. "I don't want you to get yourself killed."

Robin whirled away on the chopper, leaving Rag standing there in the fumes from the tail pipe. "Oh, right, easy for him to say. Doesn't he realize that Dark Catalyst flight requires me to bend the fabric of space and time itself? I mean that's not something you can do lightly."

Ragnarök casually flicked his wrist and a bubble of space-time opened around Ragnarök. He jetted off, following closely behind the R-Cycle. Absently, he noticed that the ruined 'System' armor that Robin had cut off Blight was bound tightly to the rear of the motorcycle.

* * *

Firstborn looked dazed, staring into the ground and crouching on her four massive scorpion legs. She had stopped bleeding, Blight realized, just as plunged Illumina into one of her 'feet'. 

Firstborn stopped looking dazed. She reared back, snarling in rage and spitting a stream of caustic blue liquid all over the park, but especially towards Blight. Tentacles and insect arms lashed out of random places on her body, and Blight backflipped away, deflecting them with the now-blood-soaked Illumina. She released another swarm of demon bats from her mouth, which shrieked as they flew towards Blight had tore into his newly healed flesh.

He sliced them with the sword, and that seemed to take them down. It troubled him, though… these bats didn't seem to have any trouble digesting his ultraviolet blood.

* * *

Humans lay supine on the north side of Jump City, staring blankly at the sky. They were breathing though, and Robin hesitated as he knelt down and found pair of small bite marks side by side in the neck of one of the victims. Robin growled in disgust.

"Collin," Robin said. "Earlier, did you get a reading on where the beam that set the sky on fire came from?"

"A bit farther north," Rag said. "I think there's a clock tower up there from the 1890s, but it's been out of use for—"

"Two years," Robin said, knowing Rag was going to say thirty. "Historical records don't always tell you everything."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It was Slade's first hideout. If my hunch is right, what we need to kill the vampire is up there."

"But what good does that do us. The bodies are here, but maybe it moved on." Rag looked over the area again, cycling through visor modes. "I'm not detecting any peculiar life readings in the area. There are still people holed up in their homes over there, though."

"Thank you for that information." The voice was new, and Robin and Ragnarök whirled around to see an incredibly tall man standing behind them. His hair was slicked back like the wickedest early-20th century attorney the world had ever seen, but his clothing was from a far earlier era.

"The suave count," Robin said. "You have a name, or should I just call you Dracula?"

The Offspring smiled in amusement, but pointed to Ragnarök. "Flesh!" he barked. "You are not from this world. You hide here like a coward when you could use that Dark Power you posses and rule the world. This confounds me."

"I've seen what that sort of power can do to a guy," Ragnarök said. "By the way, how the heck do you know about it?"

"The flesh of mortals is flimsy, their souls easy to read."

"Yeah, I bet your soul is a load of laughs," Rag said.

"Flesh, I do not have a soul," the Offspring spat, the smirk vanishing from his face. Robin's heart skipped a beat. The vanishing grin reminded him of someone—someone who was deadly when he smiled—and evil personified when he frowned. Robin didn't think that guy had a soul either.

"Keep him here," Robin said, jumping on the R-Cycle and roaring away. "Help will come."

Ragnarök watched Robin go and glanced nervously over his shoulder at the Offspring. _Oh boy. I get to go toe-to-toe with a magical count-vampire thing on my own with absolutely nothing at my disposal except an ancient armor, the ability to heal myself, and a machine that can alter reality on my wrist. _

"I'm glomped," he said with a gulp.

* * *

The R-Cycle was not far from overheating as hard as Robin pushed it to reach the old clock tower where Slade had first set up shop in Jump City. He whirled it around as he skidded to a halt so that it was facing the drive way—just in case he needed to make a hasty retreat.

Robin ran towards the entrance and up through the bowels of the clock mechanism and finally to Slade's former control room. Robin gasped. There were human bodies everywhere—but not corpses. They were alive, or at least had some form of life in them. Several of them got up, looking at Robin through dead eyes. All of them had a set of four marks on their, like two pairs of fangs sinking in simultaneously. A flier lay on the ground, and Robin picked it up

_Come One, Come All_

_World Renowned Magician Greta Lis_

_Tickets: $52 Dollars for Adults, $42 Dollars for Seniors and Children_

_321 North Hills Drive, Jump City—the Old Clocktower_

Robin vaguely remembered earlier in the week that a large group of people had reported strange bouts of memory loss after going to see a magic show, and finally Robin understood why. She'd bated them in with the promise of entertainment and turned them into pawns. All of them were exhaling some strange orange-yellow fume that Robin had seen before… Of course: _That's how she spread the chemical, _he thought. _She turned civilians into human biological weapons._

On the other side of the command room, Robin eyed the laser canon over the makeshift window—basically a big hole in the wall that hadn't been there during the Titans first real fight with Slade.

He could see the whole city from up there, including Firstborn down in the park, flailing wildly at the little ant that was Blight.

Robin walked towards the laser, and the humans in the room looked up and began hissing at him, bearing fangs. Robin heard a shriek from out of the window, and saw Firstborn staring towards his way, her eyes flaring red, the light visible from all these miles. Immediately, the people in the room began to rise, and ran towards Robin snarling. He cursed and withdrew his bo-staff, vaulting over them and fending them off as gently as he could.

A strong male wrapped Robin in a bear hug from behind, and bared fangs that he was about to sink into Robin's flesh. Robin pulled a flash grenade from his belt and tossed into the air in front of him; then he closed his eyes.

The grenade went off, and Robin smacked the slaves away with his staff, then darted towards the laser. He flipped over the remains of Slade's old throne and ran down the stairs towards the screens that had once displayed the Titans' vital readings. He turned and hurled a set of grenades at those steps and the ground in front of it. A few booms sounded, and the stairs and floor crumbled away. The humans all stopped in front of the hole. It wasn't a terribly long jump, and some of them probably could make it, so Robin turned and powered up the stolen particle cannon as fast as he could.

Robin whirled it towards the city streets below and saw Ragnarök and the Count Offspring through the image-enlarging viewfinder. They were still fighting. It looked like Ragnarök wasn't doing very well, though, as he was mostly dodging and not attacking. Robin had no idea anyone could manage not to win using a machine that could manipulate reality itself.

* * *

Ragnarök, meanwhile, was wondering how on Earths any heroes without powers—Robin specifically—managed to go without getting themselves killed, considering the fight Count Vampire was giving him. He sent a flurry of surreality beams that slammed into the Count and knocked it back, but they did little real damage. Ragnarök shouted in fear as the count lunged at him. He dove out of the way and countered with another attack, riding a ball of space time. 

"Foolish, flesh. You have no creativity."

"How's this?" Rag asked. He focused extended both hands straight forward and then splitting them like parting the Red Sea. The Offspring glowed red and split in two, right down the middle.

Rag sighed.

"Pathetic." The Offspring said, its two halves snapping back together with a sickening splat. It broke into a flurry of bats that came lunging at Ragnarök. He dived backwards, using the Dark Catalyst to alter his weight and flip off one hand to a standing position. He focused his mind and tried to think of what Delirium, his evil doppelganger from Earth-312 would do.

Normally, Rag would do exactly the opposite of whatever he came up with, but this time he reached out and used the Catalyst to make space-time bubbles around all the Bats that made up the Count Offspring, one by one until they were all in separate pockets of space time.

Then he flicked his wrist and all the bubbles began to scatter, one by one vanishing into the eighth dimension.

Ragnarök sat back and sighed. "Robin, it's gone," he said into his communicator. "I sent it to another plane of reality."

Suddenly, a flash of light knocked Rag on his butt, and a pair of hands leapt out of the light and grabbed him by the neck, followed by more and more pieces until the merged together and reassembled into the Offspring. "Better, flesh. But you fail to comprehend the extent of our Mother's knowledge and power."

"Your mother's so fat," Ragnarök gurgled thought he chokehold, "when asked whether she wanted her steak medium or well done, she ordered it Cthulhu."

"Your attempts at levity are infantile."

"Funny you call it infantile, coming from a guy who is just a few minutes old. _Kaff Kaff." _The pressure on his neck tightened. "Yeah, come on. Crush my trachea you glomping piece of--"

"Quit delaying your demise," he interrupted.

"I'm not stalling my death," he said. "I'm just thinking of a way—_Kaff_—out of this."

"There is none," said the Offspring. "Even that foolish boy and the laser he is attempting to commandeer will fail to save you. Yes, I know all about that. My mother tells me things. I can dodge it in a split second if I have to." He tightened the pressure on Ragnarök's throat.

"Did she tell you—_kaff_—that I can breathe just fine because I used the Dark Catalyst to make my trachea bigger on the inside than it is on the outside?"

"WHAT?!" the Offspring's eyes widened in surprise and rage, but before he could react further, a burst of light exploded around Ragnarök and he pulled his hands close together, the waves of reality-warping energy surrounded the Offspring, converging on him and locking him in a bubble of altered time, time that traveled much slower on the inside than it did on the outside.

"ROBIN, NOW!" Rag shouted. A beam of exploded from the particle cannon—a beam of energy traveling at 93,000 miles per second and heating the air it touched to over 6000 degrees Fahrenheit. It slammed into the altered time bubble, and Ragnarök dispersed the field. Six inches plus half the speed of light equals no time to react.

The beam seared through the head of the Count, tearing it off and sending the melting flesh and boiling black blood spraying all over the street.

The men and women the Offspring had drunk from sat up, dazed and rubbing their heads. The Count fell to his knees and burst into flames.

* * *

The beast that was terrorizing tourists near Precipice Rock snarled and sank its fangs into a pedestrian as he fled, and Beast Boy looked away, only hearing the scream and the sounds that made him sick to his stomach.

Fire crackled from nearby, and he looked up to see Kid Devil sailing overhead, a stream of fire spewing from his mouth at the beast.

This monster wasn't like any vampire Beast Boy had ever seen, other than the fact that it had pail skin. Its eyes were jet black, eyeball and all, and instead of a pair of sharp fangs where the canine teeth would be on a human, the creature's entire mouth was a mess of jagged yellow teeth, dripping with the blood of the man it had just killed. It was naked, with no visible reproductive organs nor hair anywhere on its body. Like some sort of genetics experiment gone awry.

"Hot damn, this thing is ugly," Kid Devil cried as the flames washed over the creature but didn't seem to burn it. Beast Boy transformed into a mammoth and slammed into it, sending it careening back into the side of the cliff.

Rocks fell from above due to the impact, and Beast Boy's shoulders ached; his skull outright throbbed. Whatever that thing was, it was far denser than it appeared.

"What now?" Kid Devil asked as it got back up and crawled towards them on all fours, slobbering as it moved.

Beast Boy looked up and saw Precipice Rock high overhead, then eyed a small red dot on the ground in front of the beast. "Hold it here," he said. Beast Boy transformed into a cougar and ran towards the rocky cliff.

Predictably, the creature turned to try and chase him, and Kid Devil threw himself across the grass lot and landed in front of the Offspring. "Before you do the chase-the-green-leopard thing, I've got a message for you." Kid Devil used his fists to hammer smash the creature backwards. "STOP EATING PEOPLE!"

The monster snarled, wrestling Kid Devil to the ground. "Flesh!" the creature snarled. "I see into your core, demon child. You were human. You gave your soul to a demon and became what you are, yet you use your powers for the sake of others in spite of it all. You could feast on their flesh and pick your teeth with their bones, yet you risk your life to rescue them. This… confounds me."

A shadow began to grow over them, and Kid Devil's glowing golden eyes widened. Then he grinned. He sank his teeth into the creature's face, his mouth covering the jet-black eye. He found himself gagging at the foul taste, wanting to wretch. Instead he burned the taste out—and the monster's eye, breathing the hottest fire he could muster.

The creature broke its grip on Kid Devil. "I guess it's because I get to do things like…"

He jumped away…

"_**-THIS!"**_

And a massive chunk of Precipice Rock granite slammed into the Offspring, crushing its upper torso and driving its crushed head into the ground. Fire erupted from within and consumed the Offspring. Kid Devil stared for a moment with a big giddy smile on his face before Beast Boy glided down as a dove and resumed human shape.

"Hot damn, that was incredible!" Kid Devil cried. "How did you know that's where the rock would land?"

Beast Boy smiled and pointed to the red laser light dot, which was now hitting the slope of granite. "They put that laser aimed at the ground on the backs of all the potentially dangerous rocks. That way if one of them falls, you'll know where _not_ to stand."

"Good thing the freak didn't live long enough to figure that out," Kid Devil said. "You do realize we basically just committed infanticide, right?"

* * *

Starfire flew, her arms holding Hotspot above the bay as they swooped down towards the Offspring on Titans Island, and cringed when she saw the fleshly monster on the roof of the Tower, trashing security system drones and breaking up the Tower's communications array.

"Good grief, that thing is ugly," Hotspot said.

Starfire cringed. This thing wasn't naked as one would expect (not that nudity was a Tamaranean taboo to begin with), but it was a hideous decaying thing, like a zombie with a pair of long fangs. Instead of the stylish black outfits that doubled as armor typical of normal vampires, this Offspring wore only decaying threadbare clothes. It shambled towards Starfire and Hotspot slowly, holding one of Cyborg's experimental rats in one hand and the remains of one it had eaten the other.

"If you have harmed Silkie, I shall tear your limbs off and feed them to you one at a time," Starfire said, her eyes burning with green energy.

"What's a Silkie?" Hotspot asked, blasting a wave of fire at the creature.

To both his and Starfire's surprise, the creature fell limp as the blast curled towards him, then snapped back into place violently, practically a bag of bones. It threw its body across the rooftop and slammed into Hotspot, knocking him back towards the water tank.

Starfire fired at with eyebeams, but the creature displayed an incredibly ability to weave in and out of the attacks, its limbs sometimes falling off to avoid getting hit with the laser. They always attached and mended right back where they had been.

"Flesh," said the creature. "You come from a different world where you could be queen. Yet you linger her on this planet and serve instead of rule. You confound me."

"_Mace Windu's ghost_, it can talk!" Hotspot blurted.

"You, flesh," the creature said. "Your flesh is the fire itself, but you cannot strike me down. I have evolved beyond that weakness."

Hotspot told the Offspring where he could shove it, and Starfire bashed him so hard it fell off the Tower. "Did that do it?" Hotspot asked.

"I do not believe—"

A bony hand reached over the edge of the tower, then another. The Offspring pulled itself back up onto the roof and began shambling towards them again.

Hotspot snarled and placed his hands against the water tank on the Tower's roof. Fire coursed around the tank, and the metal began to glow red-hot, then white-hot.

"Starfire!" Hotspot shouted. "You know how.. um… Billiards, works?" he asked, using the technical term for the game to avoid Starfire confusing the term 'pool' with swimming pool.

"Of course," she said. "I have been educated in the ways of many Earth-Games thanks to the efforts of Beast B—"

"That's great!" Hotspot said. "You're the stick, the water tank is the cue ball, and the Offspring is the 8-Ball."

Starfire looked at their orientation perplexed; her eyes lit up, and she nodded, then blasted off towards the south. She made it several hundred yards out over the bay before turning back around. Hotspot continued to heat the tank until just seconds before she got there. He drew heat out, just as she slammed into it, and sent it careening across the roof, sheered from its metal fasteners.

"Blow it up!" he shouted; Starfire hurled a brilliant green blast at the tank.

**KRAKA-BLAM!**

An explosion of steam and metal shards tore over the Tower roof, and the vapor began to cool as it washed over Hotspot. He turned off his flame so he could see more clearly.

"Did _that_ do the getting of it?" Star asked.

"I'm not sure."

As the smoke cleared the body of the Offspring lay sprawled on the ground, its flesh seared bright red and its clothing dry-cleaned by the blast of steam. Starfire sighed in relief. "I must go find Silkie," she said, hovering off towards the entrance to the Tower. Hotspot turned to follow her, and then felt a horrible stabbing pain tear through his left calf muscle. He fell forward and rolled over with a scream, kicking at the attacker even as he turned his flame back on.

The Offspring, reddened flesh cracking and peeling as it crawled towards him, glared at him with soulless eyes. "Flesh!" it cried. "Isaiah Crockett!"

Suddenly a high-pitched trill caught his ears, and a white-ish blur streaked overhead—it was some sort of gigantic insect larva. It chomped down on the creature's head, rolling off and severing the head from the neck. It seemed to be chewing with its tiny teeth for a moment, and finally it swallowed. A swollen lump formed in its belly, and the creature burped. Hotspot almost thought it was smiling.

The remainder of the Offspring's body burst into flames and disintegrated.

"Whoa…"

"Silkie!" came Starfire's voice overhead, and she launched over and grabbed the creature into a hug as it leapt off the ground. "You have saved Friend Hotspot from the mean zombie vampire! Good mutant larva!"

It trilled happily.

"That is Silkie?" Hotspot gaped. "I… guess it's kind of cute."

The pain from the earlier stab flared up and Hotspot turned his leg over to see a metal shard of the water tank sticking out of it. He pulled it out and cringed. "Ouch, jeez," he said. "Think you could cauterize that for me, Star?"

He thought a moment, then shook his head. "Never mind." He blasted the wound with a burst of fire, using his powers to deaden the effects to the skin around the wound and only cauterize it. "So… Can I pet the silk worm that saved my life?"

* * *

The T-Car was airborne as it approached the Westron Mall, and airborne again quickly, as Cyborg landed in front of the Offspring he was sent to take down only to have it knocked flying by a blow from the creature's fist. This one was tall and colored deep navy blue, shirtless and well-muscled. The only thing identifying it was a vampire were the massive fangs where its canines should have been.

Cyborg kicked out a window when the T-Car landed upside down and crawled out. He heard something move behind him, and glanced back to see Yin slink through one of the windows.

"How did you get in there?" he asked.

"Same way I just got—LOOK OUT!"

Cyborg glanced to his side a split second after he began falling, and saw a stop sign hurtling towards him. It passed over their heads and Cyborg turned towards the monster. He transformed his left arm into his Autocannon. "Say hello to my little friend!" Cyborg shouted, blasting at the Offspring with a flurry of bullets.

The bullets arced out at 100 rounds a minute—and all fell to the ground worthlessly as they sank into the creature's muscles and lost all their momentum.

"Holy spit, that thing is tough," Yin said. "What do we do now?"

Cyborg growled, and leveled his Autocannon at the Offspring's head, then fired all his remaining missiles as well, arching out and slamming into the Offspring. A cacophony of explosions and ricochets resounded, and a cloud of smoke began to clear..

Until the creature dashed out of it, running towards Cyborg and Yin without so much as a scratch.

Cyborg turned and grabbed Yin, hurling him as far as he could, before grabbing the T-Car and using it to smack the Offspring across the street and into a jewelry store. Or that was the plan, at least. Instead the T-Car just sort of bent around the creature, knocking him over. Cyborg let go of the car and ran, firing sonic shots over his shoulder. Then the T-Car landed hard in front of him and bounced several times, and Cyborg turned back.

The Offspring was running at him now, far faster than anyone that dense had a right to be moving. (Well, except Superman.) Cyborg held his ground, judging that the density of the creature also meant that inertia would come back to bite him. Cyborg was right, and he dove out of the way, causing the creature to tear through the T-Car and slam into a light pole. It turned, seemingly not bothered.

"You have anything else in that bag of tricks?" Yin asked, appearing beside Cyborg.

"Now that you mention it." Cyborg tapped a button on his leg and pulled out a small golden device that looked vaguely like a gauntlet, only very high-tech.

"What's that?"

"An Ion Amplifier," Cyborg said. "Something Bother Blood created a while back. It beefs up the power of any electrical system, and I've just over-clocked it to about twice what it is supposed to do. If this doesn't kill him…"

"Then_ this_ looks like a job for _Superman_," Yin said.

"Bingo."

Cyborg latched the Amplifier onto his right wrist and transformed the arm into the sonic cannon. "Hey, tall, blue, and overbite-afflicted—!" Cyborg shouted, aiming the cannon. "SEE HOW YOU LIKE THIS!"

An enormous blue-white beam of sonic energy lashed out of his weapon and tore through the city street, shattering windows nearby through sheer force and windows for blocks around due to resonance.

The wave washed over the Offspring and continued on out into the bay. Cyborg felt electricity crackle along his arm and performed an emergency shutdown of all circuits to his sonic cannon. The arm fell limp at his side, and Cyborg reactivated the systems only to realize that most of them were fried. The Ion Amplifier was dead and he had maybe thirteen percent juice left in his sonic cannon. He couldn't even revert it to his normal arm.

The Offspring still stood.

Granted, it would be an outright lie to say he was unfazed this time. In fact, he had been almost entirely obliterated—only a black skeleton remained, glaring out at the two Titans with burning fire in the eye sockets of his skull.

But it kept coming, now staggering forward. Cyborg stared, his jaw hanging loose as he tried to process how it could keep moving. _Slade lasted months as a skeleton under Trigon's magic,_ he reminded himself.

"It should be weak now," Yin said. "Smash it!"

Cyborg glared at the kid's cheerleading, but ran forward, grabbing his sonic cannon in his left fist and smashing the Offspring in the head. The skull recoiled, but the rest of the creature didn't move. Cyborg's biological eye widened when he realized that the bones weren't even attached together—no glue, no ligaments to hold them. They just floated there as if suspended in some invisible matrix.

Fire blasted from the Offspring's eyes, and Cyborg leap t away, the flames searing his free hand. He took a few steps back, shaking the fire off, even as the Offspring walked forward, bones shaking as it glared. It's right arm extended, and the bones shot forward, extending well beyond their normal grasp. Cyborg and Yin dove out of the way, but the bones shot flew on for a long ways and when they flew back, they held—someone.

A civilian, probably a tourist judging by his manner of dress. "NO!" Cyborg cried, trying to transform his arm into the Autocannon but finding it inoperable due to damage from the fire.

Probably would not have done any good; the fangs of the skeleton immediately sank into the man's neck, drawing blood out and into the skeletons throat. Cyborg watched as the liquid flowed down the vertebrae of the Offspring's neck and turned black. Cyborg wanted to tear the creature limb from limb.

The blood flowed into the chest cavity, inside the ribs, and then transformed, coalescing into a beating heart. It just floated there in the air, like the bones, but the more blood the Offspring drank the more the offspring's organs began to return.

"NO!" Yin cried, diving forward in between the man and the skeleton and wrenching the man out of his grip. He didn't actually break the grip, though—rather he tore gashes into the dead tourists' flesh. Yin stared in horror at the corpse and then snarled. "YOU FREAK!"

He lashed out, throwing his arms towards the Skeleton and grabbing it by the skull, pressing as hard as he could. Nothing happened.

"Davis, get your hands off that thing, or it'll kill you!" Cyborg shouted into Davis' ear.

"NO!" he said. "Put your sonic cannon in my back. You don't have enough energy to waste it on flashy light shows. Sound travels better through solids than it does through air, right?" Davis quietly thanked God he'd paid attention in Physical Science the day they'd gone over that.

Cyborg nodded, jamming the canon arm into Yin's back. Cyborg began adjusting the frequencies, while Yin twisted his arms into a twizzler trying to increase the tension.

The Offspring seemed to grin. "Flesh. Your flesh is soft, weak. You have a unique ability, but in its uniqueness it makes you worse than the average man. What makes you think you can be a hero? You have nothing; you know nothing. It.. confounds me."

Davis looked at the ground. "I don't care, honestly," he said. The vibrations ran up his arms, and he could feel them in the palms of his hands, transferring into the head of the beast. "Cyborg—!"

"I'm TRYING!" Cyborg burned more power, upping the energy and switching through frequencies faster.

Finally, Yin felt the creature's skull began to vibrate at the same pulse as his hands. "THERE!" Yin said. "Keep it there." For the first time, the Offspring's eyes altered. The flame seemed to grow, but in worry, not amusement.

"What devilry is this, flesh?"

"The sin of improvising," Yin answered with a smirk.

The Offspring snarled and fire flew from its eye sockets, covering Yin's arms. Yin gritted his teeth even as he felt his limbs begin to melt, and Cyborg upped the energy one last time. Yin cried out, but the skull of the Offspring shattered, and Cyborg aimed one perfectly timed shot, blasting the crackling ball of fire inside to oblivion with one last sonic cannon shot.

The bones of the final Offspring burnt up, even as Yin and Cyborg began beating out the fire on Yin's arms.

* * *

Blight slammed into the side of a building, fighting the urge to pass out. He stumbled to his feet and clutched for his sword, finding it near him and using it to help him stand. He took a sip of water from the bottle in a pouch on his side. It was lukewarm and bitter, but it helped clear his head up a bit.

Firstborn smashed the ground in front of him with her front legs, and Blight jumped out of the way and sprinted around her in a circular arc. He'd seen some flashes of light on the roof of Titans Tower a minute ago, and hoped the last of the offspring would be dead soon. That should give him a suitable distraction.

He rolled out of the way of a caustic blast and chopped at Firstborn's legs, getting hit only once. It was a glancing blow. He drove the sword into her side, but only for an inch or two before she jerked away and nearly pulled the blade out of his hands.

The leg bent, Firstborn going down on that knee, and Blight had to dive out of the way to avoid getting crushed. But before could get back up, pain and pressure enveloped his back, and he felt the Firstborns leg press down against him, crushing him against the barren dirt.

"You've been a big help," Firstbor's gravelly voice trilled. "But now you've become a nuisance."

The pressure increased and Blight felt his heart began to race. _Help? How did I help you?_ Blight thought.

"You started this war. Rather, by destroying House Kensington, you made it a simple matter for me to provoke the Feral to wrath. Now they all lie broken, every house with irreparable losses, and myself with the power to begin anew."

"You're a bit more intelligent than I'd thought," Blight hissed. He didn't think Firstborn could hear him as he'd practically whispered. He didn't have the air for anything else, and the pressure was getting worse.

"I planned everything," Firstborn said, again seemingly answering a question she couldn't possibly have heard. "I can see inside your mind, Daniel."

"That's not my name anymore," Blight spat.

"No matter. You'll soon join your victims in—" Suddenly, the pressure lightened and Blight squeezed out from under her leg and grabbed his sword. He rolled over to see Firstborn's face a mask of horror. "No!" she cried, turning to the four cardinal directions. "My Offspring! They have been murdered."

"You were foolish to place so much hope in a bunch of mongrel children!" Blight drove Illumina into her chest and putting his full weight on the hilt. He fell, sliding down her body and slicing a gouge in her torso.

Firstborn snarled, spewing more of the blue acid that Blight hated so much. He dodged out of the way and hurled a tracking device—one that had been encased in a lead-lined belt pouch when Robin's EMP went off.

The device went active, and seconds later a massive bomb slammed into Firstborn, Blight shielding himself behind a car. He stood up to see the napalm-covered Firstborn writhing in pain, and he took the opportunity to strike leaping from her leg to her back and climbing the burning creature up to her shoulders. The napalm had burned both wings clean off. "The end," Blight said, driving Illumina into Firstborn's head.

The shine faded from Firstborn's eyes, and she collapsed to the ground, bursting into a cloud of black mist, swirling around Blight as he charged up one final blast of Ultraviolet energy, inhaling a breath as he charged his energy.. Then he released both, and Firstborn was no more.

He glanced to the north side of the park to see Robin pulling up on the R-Cycle.

"Where's your miracle working friend?" Blight asked. "Did he perish in the fight?"

"I sent him to take care of civilians afflicted by Firstborn and that Offspring. He's taking them home."

"And you returned here because?" Blight asked, sheathing Illumina despite the fact he knew what was coming.

"You're under arrest," Robin said. "I don't care what you did today, you murdered at least three people that weren't even vampires."

"So predictable," Blight said with a bitter laugh. "Funny they call you a hero when you go back on a deal so easily."

Robin threw down his bo-staff and did a spinning leap kick at Blight, but Blight blocked it and dove forward, his victory over Firstborn fueling a surge of adrenaline. He jabbed into Robin's neck with his fingers, causing him to reel. A kick to the chest sent Robin down, and he slammed his head against the pavement and didn't get back up.

"That was easier without the armor," Blight thought aloud. "I'll have to bring that little detail up with Saint Eldritch."

* * *

By the time the Titans were well enough to move again, Blight was long gone. The police, frazzled as they were, had miraculously managed to only lose a few good men and women to the Feral hordes, and quickly began to work with other city government officials to begin the clean up. Haney Park was ruined and would have to be pretty much rebuilt from the ground up—literally, as much tainted blood had soaked into the topsoil.

Robin and the Titans had decided to pitch in and help out as they could; Ragnarök was especially useful, but warned that overuse of the White Catalyst to heal was a bad idea. If the Dark Catalyst recharged by slowly consuming the fabric of the universe, he'd explained, the White Catalyst may restore life by slowly consuming the life force of others—or, for all he knew, the people it was healing. He had at least managed to repair the damage to Davis' hands, though.

Yin was the only Titan who didn't help. Robin found him leaning against a wall of a half-wrecked building staring blankly at the bay. "Davis," he said. "You need to head home."

"My mom already called," he said. "She was about to board the plane to Kentucky, and said that, if you all couldn't bring me out, she would send me a plane ticket."

"What about your father?" Robin asked.

"He's decided to go through with the divorce," Davis said, slinking so low that Robin almost thought he was melting."

* * *

_"Today, famous actor and former NRA president Charlton Heston announced his immediate resignation from the National Rifle Association," _said the news announcer on the TV in Davis' room. Davis stared with his jaw literally on the floor.

"I can't believe it."

"_When asked about why he was resigning, Heston declined to comment, but stated that it had nothing to do with the carnage in Jump City, California this afternoon. The meaning of this statement, which he said with a wink, is unclear."_

"I just can't believe it."

"Maybe you could believe this," Robin said. "I just got off the phone with your mother and DHS."

"Huh?" Yin asked, turning to see Robin standing in the doorway to the elevator. He held a small leather bag. "The rest of the Titans are still out on clean up," he said. It was a bit of a jab, Davis thought. He hadn't been able to do anything other than sit around and sulk, so Robin had sent him back to the Tower.

"Your mother has agreed to let you stay here," Robin said. "For now, at least."

"You're serious?" Yin asked, his eyes widening. "You mean I can stay, here, be a full time Titan?"

"You've finished school this semester, right?" Robin asked. "You'll start next semester via a home school service. It's not going to be a vacation, and it's not going to be easy. You'll have to train a lot harder than you ever have before."

"I understand," Davis said.

"Oh, one more thing," Robin said with a smirk. "I think you've earned this."

Robin tossed the leather bag across the room, and Yin caught it and pulled it into his lap. "What is this?"

"Open it."

Yin unzipped the bag and reached inside, then goggled as he pulled out a folded up piece of a black and white fabric, made from a material he wasn't familiar with. He forgot to breathe for a moment as he stood up and unfurled the material, a smile forming on his face. It was a white jumpsuit with a black stripe down the torso, and in the middle of the black, the Yin half of the Yin-Yang symbol was emblazoned. There were black bands at the knee and elbow joints. Davis felt more weight in the bag, and reached in and pulled out a pair of heavy-duty green goggles, a belt with a communicator buckle, and a pair of gloves and boots that matched the costume's color scheme and materials.

"How on earth—?"

"I found your sketchbook in your room," Robin said. "You left it out here the first week and I thought I'd surprise you—and hopefully help keep you from getting killed. But honestly, after all you did today, you earned this suit. Welcome to the team, Yin."

Despite noticing that Robin stopped short of admitting he was wrong, Davis felt his eyes began to water, and he smiled more broadly than any normal human could.

"Davis, are you alright?"

"Yeah... Just let me have a happy moment."

**0000**

The next morning, the Titans gathered around the table in Ops for breakfast, with Kid Devil, Hotspot, and Yin as honorary guests.

Robin extended a hand and, for the first time all week, smiled. "We couldn't have done this yesterday without you guys, you know."

"Thanks," Kid Devil beamed, shaking his hand. "It was awesome that we could help you out. Stuff like this never happens back down in Los Angeles."

"Yeah, it was exciting at least," Hotspot said. "But my leg is gonna be killing me for weeks."

"I know what will make it better!" Cyborg called, walking into the room with a huge metal plate with a dome covering. He pulled the lid off. "WAFFLES!"

A crackle of energy nearby caused heads to jerk that direction, and a portal appeared in the middle of the kitchen. A female figure stepped out, clad from head to toe in dark-colored hiking gear and carrying a bag over her shoulder. Kid Devil briefly thought his request for a Mary Sue was arriving a day late and a dollar short.

Then the figure removed her hat.

"RAVEN!?" Robin gasped. "What are you wearing."

Raven sweatdropped, and put down all her stuff, hiding the hat behind her back. "Um, oh, nothing. Just things I picked up along the way."

"You certainly appear as though you have been busy," Starfire said, wrapping the grey-skinned Titan in a hug. "And smell as though you have not bathed in a week."

"Thanks Star," Raven muttered. "I really need _that_broadcast to everyone."

Raven looked around and saw one kid who was blushing blood red and stifling laughter. Then she realized he was Kid Devil and that his skin was just that way naturally. But why was Kid Devil here? And Hotspot too?

Raven scratched her head. "So," she began. "Did I miss anything big?"

The Titans just stared at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

* * *

A discussion had taken place, but it was mostly incomprehensible to any outsider. One such outsider watched as Mihaela Grant slinked out of a clinic marked with the symbols of House Grant and House Zilliox.

Mihaela stopped, and tilted her head back and sniffed the air.

"Who is there?"

A figure in a black cape dropped from a nearby fire escape, flipping from upside down to right side up in the air. The Boy Wonder stepped out of the shadows.

"Robin!" Mihaela said. "That is a good way to get yourself killed."

Robin studied Mihaela up and down. Her hands and much of her head was wrapped in white bandages, and red marks were visible on her face. So were the claw-marks from the gashes made by Firstborn. They had partially healed, but were still very visible. Robin saw no use in asking Mihaela how she was doing.

"I just wanted to know what happens now." Robin closed his eyes for a moment. "How many died?"

"We still don't know," she said. "So few bodies. We have to count up the living and match them with medical records. But we lost _all_of House Kensington before the war even began."

"I heard that most of House Carpathia was taken out as well," Robin said. "After the sun started burning again. How is the balance of power?"

"That is none of your business," Mihaela snapped. "Not an outsider. We already have the Grant Mansion crawling with amateur vampire hunters and the occasional FBI agent. My mother had to_ pay _an enchantress to make our home less suspicious."

"It's my business because this is my city," Robin said evenly. Absently he thought how much he sounded like Bruce when he said that. _Gotham is MY CITY._

"Your city?"

Robin shook his head. "No, it's not," he admitted. "My real city is three thousand miles away. But I need to know whether this city will see another war. I need to be sure something like this can't happen again. I'm still kicking myself for letting Blight get away."

"There are no guarantees," she replied, choosing her words cautiously, "But for now, we are too busy recovering from our losses to think about another war. Some of us believe the Firstborn's destruction is the dawn of a new era, but others believe politics as usual will continue."

Robin nodded. "Keep your eyes open, then. And when there's trouble… well, you know who to call."

* * *

**Endnote:**And so ends this arc; I hope you enjoyed it. Immediately after this arc come other stories—_Turnabout Titan _and my Christmas story _Good Tidings, Great Joy, All That Jazz. _

To disclaim something that may not be obvious, the Order of Saint Dumas is owned by DC Comics. In the comics, it was a fanatical splinter of the Knights Templar and the group that trained the troubled hero Jean-Paul Valley, AKA Azrael. The 'System' in the comics is actually an extensive regiment of psychological conditioning that caused Azrael to become psychotically violent when fighting evil. The four vampire Offspring are patterned after specific vampire interpretations. The Count is obviously Dracula; the one crushed by the rock is based on _30 Days of Night, _the one Silkie ate is based on the old vampire folklore, and the Supervampire was based on the Vampire/Werewolf hybrids in _Underworld._

Next up: _**Kidnapped!**_ Part One


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